Lately, getting to class has been a struggle. Three weeks ago, a rock flew up and hit and cracked my windshield. I still made it to class. Two weeks ago, I was in the hospital the day of class. Last week, class was cancelled.
So even though I was driving with a ticking time bomb of a tire, I was determined to get to class.
I prayed to God. I asked for the same Angel of God that followed the Israelites out of Egypt to go before me and behind me, to swallow me in a bubble of protection. Just let me make it to class.
I made it half way when the tire blew. Actually, the tread fell off. This is not the first time this has happened to me. Treads shouldn’t fall off tires these days, unless you’re driving a big rig, but they fall off for me. Last time, I was almost home, going 40 mph. Now I was far away from home and going much, much faster.
But I didn’t lose control. I was in the fast lane and traffic was heavy, but I was still able to pull over to the shoulder without getting hit. I sat for a moment, ready to kick myself for driving on a tire I knew was bad and then I got out and took a look.
At first it didn’t even look bad. The tire wasn’t even flat yet. But then I moved around the back and saw that the tread was shredded and had peeled off a quarter of the way.
As soon as I stood up from looking at the tire, a truck pulled up behind me. The lettering on the hood of the truck said “Road Ranger” and I would find out later that the truck was one of many employed by Orange County to patrol the highway looking for stranded motorists. I asked the man how much he would charge for changing the tire and he said that it was free.
Fifteen minutes later I was back on the road.
A friend of mine told me that those guys are never around when you need them. But here was this man right behind me, not ten minutes after I had prayed for an angel to follow me.
There are so many lessons here. I really don’t even know where to begin. But I think there are two things going on here. I’m going to address one today and one tomorrow in this blog.
Yesterday, I finished reading Stephen King’s new book 11/22/63. I won’t spoil anything except to say that it is a book about a man, Jake, trying to change the past, trying, in this case, to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy. But every time he gets close to changing the past, sometimes in little ways, sometimes in larger, the past intervenes. Cars break down. Jake is attacked. The past works against Jake every second, trying to preserve history.
Sometimes in our own lives, we feel the world is conspiring against us and—I’m going to say it—sometimes the world is. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Whether you believe in the devil or not, whether you believe the enemy acts aggressively in people’s lives, believe this—when you try to do something good, when you have moved and positioned your life on the path to God, there will be things that happen that try and knock you off. Temptations will be greater, maybe because you’ll notice them more, and weird and strange things will happen, like rocks to your windshield and shredded tires.
But good things will happen too because God always has your back.
A few weeks ago, when I drove home from school in excruciating pain, not knowing if I would make it home at all, an ambulance drove behind me most of the way.
And last night, a “road ranger” followed me and took care of me when I found myself on the side of the road.
The world is a harsh place, but God lives there with us. He inhabits every molecule, every atom and when you start looking for Him, you will be amazed at all the places He shows Himself.
