Despite completing a driver’s education program and receiving a learner’s permit at age sixteen, I didn’t start driving regularly until two years later during my first year of college. I had suffered a persistent feeling of dread and danger at the thought of operating a vehicle on my own, to the extent that I wouldn’t drive unless it was absolutely required of me.
But the year I started college, I went to live with extended family in a town that was twenty minutes by car from the school, in a rural area with no public transportation. The members of this family, who were also Christian Scientists, lovingly but firmly told me that I would need to start driving on my own.
Since I was brought up in the Christian Science Sunday School, I was familiar with the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, so I had some idea about how to pray about fear. I remember praying with familiar hymns from the Christian Science Hymnal, one of which begins, “In heavenly Love abiding, / No change my heart shall fear” (Anna L. Waring, No. 148). It goes on to say,
