A winning decision

An incident during last year's telecast of the World Series made a lasting impression on me. A batter was hit with a fast ball and doubled over in pain. The announcer commented, "Now he's got to make that decision many athletes face when injured -- whether to shake off the pain and keep going or leave the game." The batter decided to "shake it off" and went on to help his team to victory.

How many times in a single day do we face decisions, maybe not as urgent or dramatic as the baseball player's, but still important? Often these decisions involve our bodies. In the Bible, Paul announced to the Corinthians an important decision he apparently made consistently: "I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection." n1 He meant far more than positive thinking or grit-your-teeth willpower. He was talking about real dominion.

n1 I Corinthians 9:27.

Paul was a follower of Christ Jesus and his teachings. These teachings bring dominion. They continually turn those who follow them away from mortality to the reality of God and His spiritual creation, man -- our true identity. The decision to accept spiritual reality, not mortality, helps protect one from pain , dishonesty, greed -- any inharmonious conditions.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, talks at length in Science and Health with Key to the Scripturesm of the relation of an understanding of true being to physical difficulties. For instance, she writes: "When an accident happens, you think or exclaim, 'I am hurt!' Your thought is more powerful than your words, more powerful than the accident itself, to make the injury real." She then explains: "Now reverse the process. Declare that you are not hurt and understand the reason why, and you will find the ensuing good effects to be in exact proportion to your disbelief in physics, and your fidelity to divine metaphysics, confidence in God as All, which the Scriptures declare him to be." n2

n2 Science and Health,m p. 397.

Each of us in reality is an immortal child of God and not in the least physical.We can find this record of our real genealogy in the Bible, where it's recorded that God made man in His own image and gave His image dominion.m n3

n3 See Genesis 1:26.

And what is the nature of this original that man is imaging? Mrs. Eddy gives seven Bible-based synonyms for God: Principle, Soul, Mind, Life, Spirit, Love, Truth. Man reflects this infinite source.

Immediate rejection of physical -- or any other -- inharmony, and deep recognition of our true, spiritual nature, are essential to healing. Healing is attained as we understand that God, not matter, is the source of man's health and peace.

While I was washing windows, one of my hands began to swell rapidly, and the fingers became stiff. I rejected the belief that matter can act or react and instead affirmed the truth that God is the source of all right activity. I thought of this passage from Science and Health:m "Suffer no claim of sin or of sickness to grow upon the thought. Dismiss it with an abiding conviction that it is illegitimate, because you know that God is no more the author of sickness than He is of sin." n4 Soon the condition yielded, and I finished the job.

n4 Science and Health,m p. 390.

The most active "playing field" we find ourselves on daily is our thinking. From many sources come the thoughts that evil is more powerful than good and that we are subject to harm at every turn. Not true, when we understand why! A loving God does not subject His creation to negative conditions. The decision to turn away from anything that would interfere with harmony, and to acknowledge God and our coexistence with Him as His image, moves us toward greater dominion over our bodies. It's a winning decision. DAILY BIBLE VERSE Choose you this day whom ye will serve. Joshua 24:15