Whitewater rafting in level III rapids in Costa Rica, I was thrown overboard. Despite my life vest, I was pulled deep underwater, and complete darkness surrounded me.

“This is it,” I thought. “I am finally going to die.”

This fear of death was familiar to me from my childhood facing cancer. And here it was again, front and center.

I don’t remember the exact moment that I turned to God and prayer, but I do remember what my first prayer was: “Please let me live to be twenty.”

I said it when I was eleven years old and going into the hospital for weekly chemotherapy treatments. I knew that I was living between life and death. I also knew that I wanted to live.

Prayer has a very personal meaning arising from an individual’s religious background or spiritual practice. For some, prayer will mean specific sacred words; for others, it may be a more informal talking or listening to God or a higher power…