Are you willing to make the sacrifice?

My favorite event in the Winter Olympics is the figure skating. The precision, discipline, incredible concentration, years of practice, inspiration, dedication and commitment required to be the best in the world are awe-inspiring. The same rule applies to success in the other sports as well, no doubt.


I love listening to their stories of how they became one of the best skaters in the world. Invariably huge sacrifices were made along the way. Invariably, success required thousands of hours of practice, time many kids spend playing, watching TV, on Facebook or gaming. Often their families make huge sacrifices financially, even moving to different parts of the world to be close to qualified trainers. One skater from Japan changed her citizenship to Russia so she could train with her dream-coach for pairs in that country.


Most of us will never know what it feels like to stand in front of tens of millions of viewers on TV with a gold medal in hand for a job well done. We can only fantasize about what kinds of thoughts and emotions rush through the minds of those few who achieve such grand Olympic success.


But that’s okay. We all have our own niche to fill and only a few can be an Olympic champion. We can be a champion in other ways, and most significantly, a spiritual way.


The ultimate success in life will never be a material accomplishment, such as a gold medal, a high paying position, a family raised, or social, political, economic achievement. It will be spiritual growth, discovering spiritual reality as the all and all of existence—entrance to heaven!


Compared to spiritual life, everything in this world pales, and rapidly.


Just as it takes sacrifice to win a gold medal in figure skating, though, downhill skiing, or snowboarding, are we willing to make the sacrifices necessary to garner spiritual success? Are we willing to put in the hours of practice, the days of study, the years of commitment to reach the worthy goal of spiritual understanding? Are we willing to drop activities in our life that are not contributing to our goal, that hold us back, distract us, scatter us and dilute our effectiveness? Are we willing to make the investment required to be successful? Are we willing to sacrifice to be successful?


Jesus was not evasive about the demands placed upon the student who desired spiritual achievement. To the young man wanting to know what more he needed to do to be saved, Jesus said, “If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me” (Matt. 19:21). “Sell what thou hast,” means more than just losing attachment to material goods. It means to give up and get rid of mental commitments that distract from total spiritual mindedness. To reach spirituality we have to give up all materiality, and this is where the sacrifice comes in.


It only seems like sacrifice to the mortal mind that wants to hold on to matter as substance and wealth. But to the spiritually inspired, thought quickly sees that the loves of the worldly minded are poverty with God. There is nothing to give up at all, except a false belief of what true happiness and riches really are.


Like the aspiring Olympians catching a glimpse of what success looks like and thus becoming willing to sacrifice anything that gets in their way to acheive it, once we catch a glimpse of what spiritual success looks like, it’s much easier to sacrifice attachment to the world that gets in the way.

So, you can "skate for the gold" today--live for God, not for temporal glory, position or status, and reap the reward of peace, health and harmony that come from devoted spiritual mindedness.

What is a victory in sports?

I went to Principia College last weekend to watch Jenna, my daughter, swim in the Liberal Arts Swimming and Diving Championships. It was a large meet with 10 teams competing.

The Crafton Center where the meet was held on the Principia campus is an impressive facility, spacious, modern, and as nice as I’ve ever seen. It was a special joy to watch Jenna compete at the college level and in a sport she dearly loves. She did well.

Crafton Center

While watching three hundred or so swimmers compete, I couldn’t help but notice that only a handful would place first. Deep in their heart, every swimmer would have loved to win their event, I imagine, but only a small percentage of the total competing ever would. It’s just the way events are set up. Only one swimmer or team can come in first. Everyone else follows in their trail, point-wise.


But does that mean all those in second or lower place are losers? I think not.


While rooting for a men’s relay team that soon was trailing seven others in the same heat, my heart sunk a bit at first, and then I remembered that winning is not measured in time. It’s measured in spiritual qualities demonstrated and gained.

I put the meet into perspective.

College is about learning lessons for life, I reasoned, lessons that will turn aspiring young men and women into responsible and productive adults. I asked myself, what will benefit these swimmers the most in the long run? Is it a medal or is it the persistence, patience, discipline, determination, courage, confidence and unwillingness to give up that turn them into responsible mature men and women that will bless them the most?

For instance, say one is later married and the relationship gets tough and rocky. The individual who learned early in life not to give up easily, to dig in and work out one’s troubles, to have courage to face mountains and climb them, to persist and prevail, will not give up easily on that marriage and walk out the door early. They will hang in there and make it work. But to the individual whom all things come easily, and who hasn’t learned the lesson of not giving up under difficulty, they might cave easily and quit prematurely.

I thought about business and the economy and how rough earning a living can be at times. The swimmer who had to work hard to get to the finish line whether he won or not, will have learned not to give up under challenging circumstances. He will work harder, swim harder, you might say, and keep on going until he makes it to the end. He will not give up easily just because others are complaining and the odds seem stacked against him.

Yes, it’s nice to win a medal. But, hey, let’s be honest, not everyone is going to be the top point getter in everything they do. We all have our talents and strengths, but likely enjoy a much wider array of activity that include activitives other than what we are best at. For instance, I like to play tennis, a lot. But I’ll never be a medal winner. It’s not my strength in life, but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy it just as much as those who win all the tournaments and get the media attention. I don’t need that kind of recognition to benefit from the sport and become a better person for it.

The Apostle Paul wrote, “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.” Absolutely! I agree! We should run every race with the intent to win the prize. But the prize Paul is writing about is not a temporal social or material type of recognition. It’s a spiritual reward, a heavenly prize that can never diminish in significance or tarnish over time. It’s the prize of increased spirituality lived and expressed. It’s the prize of improved character that makes us a better person. And we can gain this whether we stand on the world’s winner’s podium or not.


The general higher purpose of healthy sports competition is to prepare youngsters for life lessons. If students come out of a competitive event better people, then they gained, they won. They defeated some belief of lack in their life that they’ll never have to face again.


It’s fun to win gold medals, but it’s not necessary to gain as much as those who do.


Back to the relay I was watching…with my team trailing seven others…


I no longer saw swimmers lagging other swimmers—winners and losers. I saw children of God in every lane expressing an activity of life the best way they knew. Some of them were especially gifted in swimming talent. Others weren’t. But that didn’t matter anymore. The material outcome of who got to the finish line was a shortsighted view of the benefits coming from competing in that event. It was the spiritual outcome that was significant.


I watched closer at the trailing swimmers for qualities being expressed. I saw determination, conviction, hard work, courage, and unwillingness to be discouraged even though everyone else was ahead. I thought to myself, now those are qualities that are going to benefit those youngsters immensely in later years. They may not have won this race, but they are going to win the race of life. They are gaining qualities that enable them to succeed in other endeavors in years to come.


In later years, when the chips are down, when everything in the world seems against them, when everyone else seems to be succeeding and they aren’t, when the world is screaming out that they will fail, that they’re not good enough, that they can’t do it, they will not give up. They will keep on swimming. They will work harder, and they will keep on swimming until they get all the way to the finish line. Those kinds of people, my friends, are ones who succeed in life.


“I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Paul

A window to God

While observing world class tennis players at Indian Wells last week, I was continually impressed with the precision, control, readiness, abilities and strategy of players. They were experts at their sport, and I learned much from watching them.

I also knew it was important not to idolize them because their talents and strengths even though individually manifest, originated from the one Mind we all hold in common. Its right and proper to honor the individuality expressed, but God gets the credit.

I thought about Mary Baker Eddy’s statement in Science and Health about how God is manifest through mortals. She wrote

"The manifestation of God through mortals is as light passing through the window-pane. The light and the glass never mingle, but as matter, the glass is less opaque than the walls. The mortal mind through which
Truth appears most vividly is that one which has lost much materiality — much error — in order to become a better transparency for Truth. Then, like a cloud melting into thin vapor, it no longer hides the sun."

I admire people who excel at their craft. It takes hard work, commitment, dedicated training and discipline, obedience to rules, and practice, practice, practice to reach their goals. These qualities are spiritual, virtuous and exemplary. They certainly need to be tempered with moral and spiritual values that keep the individual grounded in Truth, but I saw much evidence of love and care expressed on the courts. I saw the unpleasant opposite too…

But as I appreciated the virtues these players demonstrated in order to excel at their sport, and acknowledged the window into greater possibilities for quality tennis playing they exhibited, I marveled at how every individual in this world is a window into God in some way.

Not everyone is going to be seen on TV and played up in the newspaper headlines. But that doesn’t matter. It’s what we are spiritually that counts, not what others think we are materially.

I thought about the smile, faithfulness and care a clerk always show me when I check at out a local grocery store. She is missing teeth, appears to have had a very hard life, and likely lives on a small salary. But she smiles on anyway. She loves anyway. She works faithfully without complaint. She is devoted. She is an example. She is a window into the land of Love where what we have spiritually is more important than what we lack materially.

I pictured a huge house with billions of windows around the perimeter of the building. And thinking of Eddy’s transparency metaphor above, I labeled each window as a mortal. According to the cleanliness of the window, one could peer inside of the home through that window—the home being heaven.

I like that analogy. It reminds me that mortals are not children of God. Yet, the individuality of God is hinted through mortals that allow the light of Truth to shine through them to some degree. As we follow the light shining through that mortal back to God, and don’t get mentally stuck on the physical personality, we capture the real individuality of man made in the divine likeness. Then we begin to discern the real individuality of our neighbor as a spiritual being, and not as a mortal body.

Is your window pane clean today?

My fear is gone

The most amazing transformation has happened in my tennis playing this week.

In my blog last Monday, I logged the death knell of my lifelong fear of not being able to successfully do anything sports related. Well, the payoff this week has been far beyond my expectations.

I’m not afraid on the court anymore!

In preparation for our next big tournament in two weeks, I’ve played against strong opponents these past few days, and I’m not the same player I used to be. I’m more limber. I’m flexible. I’m not anxious, worried or fretting over my next shot. I’m generally free of worry or concern about whether I’ll hit the ball accurately or not. I’m able to focus better, forgive myself quicker and wholly enjoy the game.

I can’t tell you how huge of a change this is, and I never realized, until this week, how subtle fear has restricted my bodily movement on the court over the last three years.

My coach has incessantly told me to loosen up, relax my grip, follow through with my swings and be more limber. I would obey, but in minutes, fall back into a semi-rigid stance. This happened so often, I figured the tenseness was normal, a part of playing the game.

But this week, the tenseness is largely gone. Oh yes, I still get anxious at moments, grip the racket handle too tight and whack the ball out of bounds, but nothing like the past.

The corrosive fear is gone and my thinking, body and playing has been liberated. Not too mention my serves, which are far better.

I’ve thought about parallel lessons for healing of all physical ailments. Its common knowledge in Christian Science that fear is the number one detriment to progress in physical relief.

Fear stifles healthy action of the body, hampers freedom of movement, disrupts functions of the organs, locks up muscles, panics perspective, and prevents progress. Fear is anti-health. Its harmful and the source of great dismay, frustration and discouragement when seeking bodily relief.

I can see the bad effect of fear on the body more clearly than ever after what happened to my tennis playing this week. My body is so much more responsive and liberated with the fear gone. I can do so much more.

For decades, I had let subtle fears constrain my actions and stymie my progress in sports. I never knew what it felt like to be free of fear on the playing field. So, I thought a degree of tenseness was normal. Now I know the difference, and there is no turning back!

The same rule applies to relief for all types of bodily restrictions. Limitation in the body is fear manifest. When the underlying fear is gone, the body releases from the imprisoning effect of that fear. The muscles relax, the organs settle into a proper routine, and one’s overall sense of well being improves. Liberation! Healing happens.

When facing down any type of limitation, it is critical that we conquer fear. Fear is the enemy to be destroyed. Where there’s no fear, there’s no tension, constraint, restriction, stress or strain. There’s freedom of movement under the harmonious Mind-action of God where health is normal and ability unlimited.

Have a happy fear-free day!

Coaching our youngsters

A reader sent in the below quote by John Wooden from his book, “They call me coach.” Wooden was a renown basketball coach at UCLA with an impressive win record under his belt and has many words of wisdom to share from his vast experience.

In reading the below I couldn’t help but think about the different coaches and teachers I’ve had over the years who had either an inspiring or less than inspiring effect on my attitude about life.

“It is most difficult, in my mind, to separate any success, whether it be in your profession, your family, or as in my case, in basketball, from religion.

“In my profession, I must be deeply concerned with God’s belief in me and be truly interested in the welfare of my fellowman. No coach should be trusted with the tremendous responsibility of handling young men under the great mental, emotional, and physical strain to which they are subjected unless he is spiritually strong….The coach who is committed to the Christlike life will be helping youngsters under his supervision to develop wholesome disciplines of body, mind, and spirit that will build character worthy of his Master’s calling. He must set the proper example by work and by deed. It is not easy.”

All youngsters are certainly benefited from coaches who aspire to Wooden’s ideals…

Parents, children and sports

For parents who have children playing sports, C.J. Mahaney wrote an inspiring piece titled, “Fathers and Sons and March Madness,” that explains how he uses his son’s participation in sports to instill spiritual values.

Check it out. It’s a worthwhile read.