How to keep from "icing up"
A ski is built to glide. The friction of the ski melts the snow enough to create a thin film of moisture. Without this film the ski has trouble sliding. There are several situations, however, that prevent this film from forming. One with which most cross-country skiers are familiar occurs when one or both skis get wet while the owner crosses a stream.
As the water on the ski begins to freeze, it blots up patches of snow. These moist patches of snow in turn gather more snow until the resulting buildup makes the ski feel as though it's made of lead. The owner is reduced to laboriously plodding through the woods, wondering -- if he's a recent convert from downhill skiing -- why he didn't stick to the slopes.
The experienced tourer, however, immediately recognizes the reason for the trouble. He stops, takes off his skis, scrapes them thoroughly, puts them on, and flies down the trail once again.
How often have we found ourselves mentally "icing up" during the course of the day? We're making good headway when suddenly something crops up -- an argument with a fellow worker, some depressing item on the news, a child's stubbornness -- and our joy takes a nose dive. Not long after, we're plodding through our tasks wondering why we're feeling so weary and weighed-down, why everything seems such a chore. At other times things go wrong from the very outset, and the day never quite gets off the ground.
But there's a way to prevent either of these debilitating courses from developing. It's vital frequently to "clean our skis" -- free ourselves of encumbering beliefs we may have picked up -- and then see to it we stay free. Paul declares, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." n1
n1 Philippians 2:5
How do we go about doing this? One way is by letting go of the belief that there can be a real source of intelligence other than the Mind "which was . . . in Christ Jesus," other than the Mind that is God. Surely it was this Mind -- forever conscious of its own goodness, perfection, and all-power -- that, reflected by Jesus, enabled him to heal. This was the Father that he declared "dwelleth in me' n2 and did the works.
n2 John 14:10; [*]The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany,m p 254.
This Mind recognizes no impediment to its allness and therefore wipes away any supposed consciousness of its opposite -- evil, confining laws of matter, disease, sin. Stripped of their false claim to consciousness, these meddlesome shadows lose any apparent claim to existence.
Mrs. Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, writes, "Released from materialism, you shall run and not be weary, walk and not faint."[*] When, through prayer, we accept as our own the Mind that is God, we don't unthinkingly stumble into the streams of so-called material mentality. We don't pick up droplets of sensualism, self-will, and fear that in turn pick up apathy, tension , and disease. To be sure, we still work, but without dull toil and floundering.
The consciousness of spiritual being that comes with accepting the Mind of Christ enables us to glide gracefully through the day, negotiate tough uphills, and take bumps without falling. And if in a moment of carelessness we start icing up, we can stop and apply the scraper of prayer, the vigorous affirmation of man's unity with God that knocks away thoughts and feelings foreign to our true nature. Then, having won our release from materialism, we can go our way as we were meant to -- unhindered, free. DAILY BIBLE VERSE Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. romans 12:21
