Last summer, my family went water-skiing on the last day of a vacation. It was my turn, and when I tried getting up on trick skis for the first time, I felt a strong pop in the back of my leg. I quickly let go of the rope and settled into the water. My leg would not straighten and there was a good deal of pain, so as the boat circled back to me, I started to give myself Christian Science treatment.
I knew that I was being presented with a belief that my muscles had reached a physical limit and were injured. But I immediately thought about a clearer understanding of muscles given in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, which talks about Charles Blondin and his tightrope walking across Niagara Falls: “Had Blondin believed it impossible to walk the rope over Niagara’s abyss of waters, he could never have done it. His belief that he could do it gave his thought-forces, called muscles, their flexibility and power which the unscientific might attribute to a lubricating oil. His fear must have disappeared before his power of putting resolve into action could appear” (p. 199).
I’ve always loved this idea of muscles as “thought-forces,” because a thought cannot be overworked or pushed beyond a breaking point into injury, and thoughts are always ready to meet the demands placed upon them. Thoughts are eternally available; they never deteriorate from lack of use, and you do not have to wait for them to get stronger to demand full use of them.
