Psalm 51:11-13(NIV)
11 Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will turn back to you.
It was one of those nights as a teeneager when nothing could go wrong. Sunday night, riding with my beast friend, and I didn't have to go to school Monday! Life just could not get any sweeter. My two best friends and I had bought tickets to go to a Nascar Truck Race. The race was suppose to have been on Saturday, but the rains had come and bumped it to Monday.
After some heavy duty begging and pleading, the three of us had talked our parents into letting us ditch school and go to the race. There is something that just feels free about a Sunday night with no Monday obligations.
I had spent the day with my friends planning out what we were going to do and when we needed to leave the following morning. As usual, I had not gone to church that morning. When I was little mom took took the kids every Sunday. For years now mom had stopped going and the only church I got was a Wednesday night service at the local Missionary Alliance Church.
I had friends who went there and the church had a huge auditorium. I loved going to play basketball and it was worth sitting through the 30 minute lecture to shoot hoops. I had not always looked at church that way. As a younger child I loved going, memorizing verses, and doing the whole merrit badge program. As I got older I fell into the, "If I can't understand it, then it must not be important" mindset.
Over the last few years I had lost several people that were close to me, and I just couldn't make things add up in my head. It wasn't that I didn't want to believe, and deep down I think I still did. I was young and stupid. I was angry that I had lost those I loved and I was faced with real doubts for the first time in my life. So Sunday mornings were for sleeping in, and Sunday afternoons were for watching racing. That was my reality.
I'll never forget the moment that it happened. There was a snap in the front of the truck and then suddenly I felt the entire vehicle lurch in my direction. It's funny how the cartoons always show a wreck in slow motion, because when you remember being in one, that's how it plays out. I remember tensing up and as an after thought thinking I need to pull my hand in the window.
My arm had been stretched out the window, my hand laying on top the roof of the cab. The window was half-way rolled down to let the cool spring air rush in. I barely got my arm in the door before the asphault rushed up to meet the passenger side door. My arm was slung back down meeting the explosion of glass where the window had been.
As the truck rolled over onto the roof, Dave and I dangled helplessly from our seat belts as sparks erupted all around in the darkness. We laugh to this day about how I looked over at him as the truck slid to a stop and hanging there said, "There goes the race."
Once we came to a rest and the truck lay still we began to frantically search for the seat belt releases. Once we had found them we fell with a thud upon what was left of the roof, holes were eaten all the way through the sheet metal and bare ground was showing through in spots.
We crawled out of the cab and walked a few steps from the mangled heap that moments ago was my buddy's truck. With an eeire moan the weight of the truck crushed the roof down like a soda can. The windows crushed enough that we would have been unable to crawl out if we were still trapped inside.
Dave took a look at me and turned ashe gray, it wasn't until then I noticed the blood streaming from my arm, the gash from almost my wrist to my elbow was laid wide open. "I'll get help." Dave said over and over again as he took off running toward the nearest house.
No sooner had he left than a set of lights came into view and a van pulled up and stopped. Two figures climbed from the vehicle and as the walked toward me in the glare of the headlights I heard a familiar voice. It was Billy, the youth sponsor from Wednesday nights and Derrick who also helped out with youth activities. While Billy tended to me, his wife called the rescue squad on her cell phone then drove to my parents house to tell them what had happened.
I knew then that this was no coincidence, no mere chance encounter. You see as I hung upside down dangling inside that sparked filled cab I had prayed, "Okay God. If you're there I could really use your help about now." Who says God doesn't speak anymore? I heard him loud and clear. He held that cab up until we got out, he sent his workers to tend to me and deliver the news to my family, and he whispered gently it's going to be okay.
Closing thoughts: When we doubt him he does not dismiss us from his presence. When we seek him he restores our joy and grants peace, when we submit ourselves to him he uses us to bring his light into the world.
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