On a summer vacation, I was feeling especially proud and assured as my motorcycle galloped the sinuous blacktop in the hills of Northern California. I put the bike on cruise control, and was feeling invincible and on top of the world.
At this point, however, I approached a curve that was strewn with gravel, and I was going so fast that I lost control of my motorcycle. It slipped from under me, and I sailed on my back across the blacktop, over the curb, and under the guardrail into an abyss.
But as I was falling in that moment of total helplessness, my affection for God grew in spontaneous immensity. I was repeating a simple prayer I had learned from my study of Christian Science: God, good, guards, guides, and governs. This natural reflex to pray propelled me to safety.
