“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all” (Psalm 34:19 ESV).
July 27, 2010
When I worked for a small non-profit in West Virginia, it took 45 minutes to drive from the office to home. Most of the road twisted and turned as if they paved it following a snake or deer. Additionally, there was no cell phone service for most of the drive. One particular day, I worked a little late. I called my parents so they wouldn’t worry about my tardiness. It had rained very hard that hot summer day but had stopped shortly before I left. Coming down off the mountain wasn’t too bad although the road was slippery in places. I then sped up to my usual pace thinking the worst was behind me. I didn’t know anything about road chemistry. It had not rained for several days, therefore oil and other chemicals had built up on the road. So then when it did rain, especially on such a hot day, it caused the road to become extra slick.
I saw a “S” turn coming up, one I had traveled hundreds of times with no problem. As I rounded the second curve, I felt like I was on a ride from the fair as my car turned sideways and continued barreling down the road. It seemed like a slow motion movie, then WHAM! All was still and the nastiest smelling steam rolled out from under the hood. All I could think of was what I’d seen on tv where cars tend to explode! When I tried to open the door, it got caught on something but thankfully I was able to squeeze out. As I stumbled onto the road, I realized my passenger side door was crunched on a telephone pole, which had cracked all the way to the top. I also took out 100 feet of fence, which was preventing my door from opening all the way. The back license plate landed 8 feet up in a tree. The whole event would have made a great commercial to show the benefits of wearing a seat belt.
I do not remember the air bags deploying nor all the contents from the front of the car, including what was in the glove box, flying into the back seat. It was as if I blacked out for a moment when colliding with the phone pole. I walked away with only a one inch burn on my arm from the air bag. What is possibly even more amazing, is that I wrecked a couple hundred feet from the only person I knew in the area! Later on I would find out that a couple of horses were inside the fence and although it took my father and uncle a couple of days to rebuild, the horses did not get out. And there were two other accidents in the area at the same time as mine. For a bright sunny afternoon, the road conditions were deadly.
I would not consider myself a righteous person. I think in our modern understanding of the word, most people, including myself, would feel it prideful to claim that description for themselves. However, the Bible uses the word “righteous” to describe God’s followers. This righteousness doesn’t come from themselves, it comes from the Holy Spirit abiding in them. As long as we desire to follow God and to do His will then wherever we are on our walk He is with us. Bad things happen and many times the deliverance God provides isn’t manifested the way we had hoped or thought. It was extremely foolish of me to drive my normal speed considering the road conditions and God did not spare my car or the fence. But He did save me, He saved the horses, He saved other people who could possibly have been in the way when everything went down, and He provided me with the comfort of getting help from someone I knew. I didn’t get a ticket, and I didn’t pay for the phone pole replacement. As bad as the situation was, it could have been much worse. I do not believe that God saved me because I was righteous, but because He wasn’t done working His righteousness within me.
“Jesus said to [Thomas], ‘Have you believed because you have seen me?’” (John 20:29a ESV). Throughout the Bible, we have examples of people seeing miracles. Thomas believed what he saw but for many people, as time goes by, they seem to forget what they have experienced and seen. I have never seen an angel come down from heaven; I’ve never been transported by the Holy Spirit to another town; I’ve never seen a pillar of divine fire. In my life, miracles like that haven’t happened, but every now and then I have experienced something that seems beyond coincidence. While we should embrace such events to bolster our faith, we should not let them define our faith. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29b ESV).