It was an odd development.
I was scheduled to play a short doubles tennis tournament with a buddy of mine, and my knee started acting up. As we warmed up on court, I found myself hobbling around a bit, unable to perform up to par.
“Where did that problem come from?” I wondered.
As I prayed for insight, the words “latent fear,” came to mind.
I know from my study of Christian Science that anything that appears in the body appears in thought first, whether one realizes it or not. The human body is human consciousness. So, I knew something was not quite right in my thought.
Latent fear…hmmmm….
Yep, it began to make sense.
Our matches that day were at the 4.0 level. I am not a 4.0 player! I’m a 3.5 player, and 4.0 is a stretch for me, but my buddy and I wanted to challenge ourselves and go beyond our comfort zone. So, here we were.
Listening further, I heard, “You’re scared of the competition you’re going to face!” Hmmm…I didn’t feel afraid, but maybe I was, a little bit, underneath the surface and hadn’t been willing to admit it.
Fear is never innocent. People often think fear is no big deal. “It’s a normal part of human life,” they reason. But in metaphysics, fear is a big deal, in the sense that fear is an aberration of mind, a stoppage of harmonious thought, a stumbling block to forward progressive thinking, a mental kink that needs to be straightened out.
And that’s what my knee felt like, a kink in the machine that wasn’t a big deal, but nuisance enough to keep me from moving at 100%.
So, I prayed to be free of any subtle latent fear.
I had nothing to fear! I protested. And that was a statement of fact. I wanted to play these 4.0 matches. I was going to learn from them and become a better player. I loved being on court. I looked forward to the competition. It was going to be a fun time no matter how outmatched we might have been, I affirmed with conviction and understanding.
I proceeded with the matches, and at first, my knee was still a bit wobbly, but somewhere along the way, I forgot all about it and went on to enjoy the tournament.
I didn’t think about it again for two days when I realized that the next day after the 4.0 competition, I played in a 3.5 competition for several hours, and not a hint of knee trouble surfaced. The “kink” in thought had been straightened out the night before, and the physical effect of that kink vanished too. I was grateful.
So, fear not! It’s a rule for spiritual healing. Trouble in the body doesn’t just happen out of nowhere. It’s an opportunity to grow in Love, harmonize consciousness with spiritual truth, and be free in mind and body.
Very helpful, especially these two statements: anything that appears in the body appears in thought first, and fear is never innocent. I was aware of these two ideas, but they became more a part of me with this blog. Thank you very much.
I had a similar issue yesterday. Suddenly I got breathless and started to feel like getting a flu.
Asked myself where these were coming from and the answer was: fear. Fear of performing and singing my new album in front of the audience.
So I started praying to recognize my perfection as a daughter of God and that I live, move and have my being in Him, always surrounded by Love. He´s guiding me therefore there´s no reason to fear a bad performance or even a lack for opportunities. If I keep listening and obeying God, success is more than guaranteed !
I started to feel better and fear levels sank. Still praying for total and complete recovery.
I would like to point out in my case that when I pray and understand the motive behind that prayer, the fear I might have doesn’t in the least prevent that prayer from coming to fruition. I ponder that a lot and I’ve come to the conclusion, and this is only myself, that my expectancy of my prayers are stronger than my mortal fears. I hope this may help others overcome their mortal fears and realize the power of spiritualized prayer.
ah ha ! a second ah ha moment I’ve gotten reading your inspired thoughts devon.the first one when you commented “we dont wait on god to answer prayer,he waits on us”and todays “the human body is consciousness” christian scientist are certainly the pioneers of thought.so far ahead of mortal opinions of today.just as columbus was of his day….dont give in to the belief of a flat world christian scientist.stay the course..the world needs us so desperatly
Thanks Evan for this wonderful thought about ridding fear!
Thank you so much. I got a lot out of this discussion. Fear really is not trusting God – that He is in control and providing what we need,every moment.