Three summers ago I was completing staff training at a Christian Science summer camp for children. We were scouting a hiking trip that we would take our campers on later in the summer. Earlier that spring, I had a very uncomfortable skin condition that spread all over my body and caused me a great deal of fear. I was taking classes at university and had a hard time focusing on my work and not being self-conscious in class. I had prayed about this and found some measure of peace.
Although I was convinced that prayer could heal me, I thought that my body might just fix itself over time, and, therefore, I didn’t need to fully trust prayer. My condition improved when I finished that school term, but I still feared that it might return.
So when the summer arrived, I had this little doubt in the back of my mind of my ability to practice Christian Science in healing sickness. A few days into staff camp, the skin condition started to return, making my hands itchy and uncomfortable. Fear grabbed on to my thought and I started thinking about the “what ifs”: What if the condition persisted so that I was unable to fulfill my duties as a camp counselor? What if it spread everywhere? What if it was still there when I left to go to Christian Science class instruction later that summer?
