Just running some errands. A simple chore. The post office, the bank, and then picking up something for my father. Nice and easy.
When I pulled onto the seven-lane road near my house, something just seemed odd. There weren’t too many cars on the road at that moment, and I just drove slowly down the road.
Then I looked up ahead, and on the other side of the road, it seemed like a guy was trying to cross the center median in his car. Sure enough, he was! There was only one problem. The median was one of those foot-tall barriers made of concrete or brick. You can’t really ride over it without doing some damage to your car.
Well, my man was about to make a crazy attempt at crossing it! He made it over and was hanging out the window, yelling and screaming at me! Not sure what I did and had no clue where this would go. So, I just stopped and let him do his thing. I actually thought he might start driving toward me, but he didn’t. He took off down the street in the right direction.
I decided to put some space between his vehicle and mine. By now, a few more cars were coming up behind me and passing me. Then what did my man do? Yup. He pulled up to the light to make a left-hand turn, and, of course, he didn’t have the arrow to turn! When you are focused, you don’t let anything stop you! He pulled ahead of the car in front of him, got in the middle of the intersection, and started spinning donuts!! I kid you not. It was pretty neat, actually! Then he sped off down the road that I was about to turn onto. I definitely thought, “I am going to run into this character again.” And I got the feeling from his behavior that he was all drugged out.
As I pulled up to the light to take a left, I noticed that the car in front of me had all of these Christian bumper stickers on it. I like those. I started reading them. And if I am reading them, then so are others. I followed behind his car as I took the left, but I decided to give myself some distance from him.
Just a ways down the road, he decided to take another left. Only one problem: there was a van traveling at a high rate of speed coming from the other direction! And that car in front of me had no turn signal. Nothing. It just turned left in front of that oncoming van causing a violent collision.
When the cars finally came to a stop, the Christian car was pinned sideways against a short brick wall. Thank goodness some guy the size of The Hulk came over and dragged him out of the car. Interestingly, he had a sticker on the driver’s side door that read, “Count Your Blessings!” I told him that he was very blessed to still be alive.
As I chatted with him, he said he didn’t know if he was born again. He was a little woozy. I wasn’t sure if it was because of the collision, if he was tired, or if maybe drugs were involved. That part of town is known for drug problems.
I was able to give out some booklets and tracts to the folks at the accident scene. I also gave a blessing to the guy whose van was destroyed. He was not happy. He kept saying that it was his work van. It was totaled.
Psalm 103:2
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
Count your blessings, folks. A lot of crazy things are going on out there. Maybe go and bless someone today, so that they can count you as one of their blessings.
Until the Nets are Full,
P.S. If you were thinking that I told my dad I was not running errands for him anymore, you would be correct! Then I remembered that he is 88, and I really don’t want him on the road driving! Oh, well. Maybe I will venture out once more and see what happens next time!
P.P.S. If you put decals on your car, someone might read them. One faithful steward of the Lord has these decals on his car windows. He says that often, while he’s waiting at traffic lights and as he glances in his rearview mirror, he sees people in the car behind him taking pictures of his decals.
Coincidentally, we happened to hear from two men who saw similar decals in different parts of the country. One man in Nashville wrote into the website and said,
“Saw the ad for it on the back of a car. I want to reach enlightenment in my life, and I hope that by reading this book I’ll get slightly closer to that goal!”
And another man in Columbus, OH, said the following:
“It was on the back window of a Rav4. I occasionally question my faith and would like to finally have some certainty to back up my beliefs.”
Keep reaching people with truth and the gospel in every way you can.