When I was nineteen years old and living close to Paris, I decided it was time to get my driver’s license. After taking the full program of classes at a driving school, I passed the theory exam but failed the road test two or three times. In France, the road test can be demanding, and I was intimidated by the presence in the car of the inspector scrutinizing my driving. I felt very bad about failing the test repeatedly and was discouraged, so I stopped the process, not knowing what to do.

Then, while serving for a year in the French Army as a paratrooper, I was also trying to find answers to existential questions. I wondered what life was about and began reading books that I thought might provide answers to my questions. Interestingly, during that time I stopped drinking and smoking, as well as using a medication for sinusitis that I previously had felt I could not do without. In retrospect, I see that I had a desire for purity and for independence from these substances and that this desire had moved me forward.

One of the books I was reading was the Bible, which was notable because I considered Christianity to be obsolete, mystical, and uninteresting. But I caught glimpses of Christ, divine Truth, and discerned the fact that the Bible’s message was totally spiritual and good and that true Christianity—Christ’s Christianity—was marvelous. An immediate effect of that new perception was that I stopped using “recreational” drugs, something I had been doing once in a while. All this took place within the final months of my time in the army.