A few months ago I wrote about a metaphysical breakthrough I had in dealing with a wrenching pain in my wrist from playing tennis.
During a lesson with my coach, he corrected how I grasped the racket and where I hit the ball when swinging, and it made all the difference. When I used the racket correctly, there was no pain. When I failed to execute properly, the pain was crippling. The deeper metaphysical lesson I took away was, “Live correctly and you’ll feel good. Live wrongly, and it hurts.”
Well, that was not the end of the story. The spiritual lesson got me over the immediate crisis, but there was still a lingering pain on occasion. So, I knew there was more to learn. And I think I finally figured out the spiritual demand. Yay!
A couple of weeks ago, during a round robin tournament where I played 8 matches in two days, I had absolutely no wrist problems at all. I didn’t give it any thought. I was fine. However, the morning after, for no rational reason, suggestions started popping up in my mind like, “Evan, you played a lot of tennis this weekend, your wrist should hurt.” It didn’t hurt, but the suggestions became very aggressive. It felt like a vindictive enemy working at every angle possible to trap me into suffering. Except this was not a person or an audible voice. It was all internal, in my mind. And the aggression increased rapidly, even though I resisted vehemently.
All morning long, the pain intensified to the extent that I could not pick up a plate, a book or the phone without dropping it from hurt. My wrist was about useless. It was so odd…. But I wasn’t afraid.
I prayed all the obvious truths, yet the pain was worse. Finally, I decided that it was a like a test. Not a test from God, but from the mortal mind that caused the wrist difficulty in the first place.
I decided that I hadn’t completely closed the door on this healing yet. Mortal mind still had a foot in my mental door but knew it was 99% doomed because I had prayed successfully for its demise. The last 1% was putting up a major fight to regain territory in my mind and body and take over again. But I wasn’t going to let it!
What did I need to understand more? I insisted.
Confidence! The voice of spiritual authority resonated within.
I’ve always had a confidence problem with my tennis. I’ve never done anything athletic in my life before tennis, and I had zero confidence before tennis that I could do anything athletic. I was an athletic incompetent, I always figured. But I was proving that to be a lie. My short history with tennis was proving that I could play a sport successfully. But I still had major lingering doubts that would put caution and fear into my playing on court and cause me to hold back.
Aw, it was starting to make sense.
The lesson with my coach earlier was about confidence, I began to see. When I played with confidence, I would swing the racket properly, and my wrist would be fine. When I lacked confidence, I’d hold back, swing poorly, and do damage.
The same rule applies to prayer. We have to pray with confidence. If we doubt the truths we affirm, and have more faith in the trouble we’re facing than in the God we’re praying too, our prayers are sapped of power. They wimp out, and fail to heal.
Did I believe the truths I prayed?, the voice of authority within demanded.
Yes! I cried. I believe the truth, I know the truth, and I live the truth. This fire-fight with wrist pain is a last-ditch effort of mortal mind to convince me I should suffer, when I don’t need to suffer. And I’m not submitting. I have 100% confidence in my prayers and the truth they verify, I reaffirmed.
I closed the door on mortal mind with finality. I was done listening.For the first time that day, the pain stopped increasing and started to disappear. It was the turning point.
Hours later it was 100% gone. I forgot about the episode until several days later when I realized that I had played strenuous tennis that week, and without a hint of pain. In fact, in a mini-test of my own, I noticed that when I swung the racket wrong, there was still no pain. This hadn’t been true for many months. My wrist finally felt whole and secure in all ways.
And I’ve been playing tennis with more confidence than ever. Not a proud-confidence, but a grateful confidence.
I still have more to learn from this healing experience, I’m sure. The metaphysical lessons are deep, but right now, they come down to, “Do you believe what you pray? Do you have confidence in the truth you utter?”
They are important questions to answer with comprehension and understanding.
I’m not a tennis player, Evan, but the message here is clear. It’s just what I need this morning.
Thank you!
Thanks, Evan! Closing the door on doubt is just what I need to claim the solid truth of the freedom I claim.
Wow! What an important lesson! I’m so grateful to you for sharing it.
What a racket error can make!!
Thanks for this encouragement to exhibit the confidence in our own prayers. Sometimes I am tempted to give up when I don’t see much progress, either materially or spiritually.
I love the picture of shutting the door on suggestions of pain and discord. I appreciate this article a lot. Thank You!!
thanks evan!
juat had a big demonstration also,but that 1% was lingering.needed your insight to close that gap
Dear Evan,
Many thanks for your humility and love in sharing your latest lesson. In p. 129 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy says “We must look deep into realism instead of accepting only the outward sense of things.”
Thank you for probing the “great heart of Love” to find and overcome the cause of the error of pain and doubt.
WOW! Thanks Evan. I played tennis for years and had wonderful healings on the court but your point of having confidence even when the material picture has not changed is so important.
Evan! I just had an example of this. All of the sudden, the sound of my I-PAD as I was using it went completely out. I tried everything to bring it back and as human as I thought I was, I began to feel panicky. I caught myself and prayed that no false belief can close the mouth of Truth. Since I have a very receptive to truth nurse aide, I asked her to help me. Calm as a cucumber, she took about a half hour, then turned the I-PAD completely off for about 15 minutes, turned it back on and there, the sound came back and I was able to use my I-PAD for C/S work. Marvelous, this religion is; even in doubt, God comes through.
when you say that the pain was caused because a wrong tennis movement isn’t looking for a cause im natter?
To above anon,
I don’t think I ever wrote that matter caused the pain. That was a conclusion you brought to the story.
When I used the racket correctly, there was no pain. When I failed to execute properly, the pain was cripping”
when I read it the feeling it gave me is of looking for a cause in matter
That was just a report of what I was feeling. The sensation of the moment. That was my belief at the time. And it needed improvement!