The other day it was raining and I was on my way to work and I drove on to
the exit ramp that leads off of The Blue Route and on to the Schuylkill
Expressway. I have driven that ramp a thousand times in the rain but the
next things I know my car is spinning in a 270 degree spin and when I
finally gain control of the car I am facing oncoming traffic….which just
happens to be two eighteen wheel tractor trailers. Thankfully my car had
drifted enough off the road that I was off to the side when the trucks
passed me. My car had stalled so I was happy to have the engine start right
up when I turned the key. I thanked God that I was okay and I resumed my
trip and made it safely to work.
I don’t know if you have ever been through an experience like that but
typically when we face circumstances in which we know that our lives could
have ended we are unsettled and often reflect on what happened. It is not
uncommon when we tell people of what occurred they say, “God was definitely
with you.” But I have some questions for you:
* What if my car had ended up right back in the middle of oncoming
traffic?
* What if the trucks that were hundreds of feet behind me when I had
spun out and actually been on twenty feet behind me?
* What if the first truck and then the second had hit me head on and
killed me?
* What if today you were waking up to attend my funeral?
Now I know that these are not pleasant things to think about but I do have
one more question. If I had died, would anybody be saying, “God was with him
on that day.”? But the fact of the matter is that if I died, God would have
been with me right up until the moment of my death and then in a more
glorious way after I died. Now of course I am using myself as an example,
but what I am saying translates to many other circumstances. Imagine a
missionary who has served God faithfully for thirty years. He has been
richly blessed by God and is on his way to speak at a church service and he
dies at the hands of a radial religious group. Was God with him? Of course
He was. Every day of his life, right up until his death. I understand why
people say, “God was with you” when someone escapes tragedy but if you think
about it in the inverse, what are we saying otherwise? If I died in an
accident with those trucks would you have concluded that God abandoned me
right at the moment of impact? If I had the presence of mind in my last few
seconds to know that I was about to die, couldn’t I have (and shouldn’t I
have) praised Him and thanked Him for being with me through my whole life,
saving me and blessing me with knowing Him, loving Him and being loved by
Him? Are only those who die in car accidents the ones who are abandoned by
God? Of course not.
The fact of the matter is that in good times and in bad times, God is with
us. In our darkest hours or happiest days, God is with us. As we arrive
safely to work, or die in a car accident, God is with us.
Now please don’t get me wrong. I am thankful that I survived. I really do
thank God that things turned out the way they did. But if I had died I would
be with Jesus right now and not typing this email. The thought of what Lisa
and Timothy and others would be going through makes me very sad, and my
heart aches that I would not be with them, but I know that even if I had
died I would have gone to my grave as a man praising God and knowing that He
was with me….right up to the moment of my death.
“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I
will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right
hand.” Isaiah 41:10-13
God is with you to….no matter what is going on in your life.
For Him,