The Car Wreck

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It had been a great day.

A few weeks ago, my two oldest kids and I spent the day at Dollywood Splash Country, a nearby water park. Though both of my oldest children tend toward caution, they each took huge steps of courage by riding down the largest slide at the park–something they swore they would never do. To celebrate, we stopped at Chick-fil-a on the way home to get dinner and milkshakes.

These are the days I live for as a parent. When I get to share uninterrupted stretches of time with my children. When I watch them do things they didn’t think were possible. I love these moments.

But then, on the way home, something unpredictable happened. As I neared our house, I exited the Interstate and merged onto a curving highway. As we rounded the curve, five raccoons appeared walking across the street in single file, effectively blocking the road. I had only a split second, not enough time to make a rational decision, and I made a small instinctive jerk on the steering wheel to the left. I remember the horrible realization that I had lost control of the car. And within a second, we smashed headlong into the guardrails on the left side of the road and then bounced back to the other side where we collided with the concrete wall twice.

Raccoon sabotage.

Maybe not such a great day after all.

My car was full of smoke from my airbag, and my kids were crying out in shock and alarm. The milkshakes had exploded everywhere. As we got out of the car and moved to a safer location, we assessed our situation. We were dazed from the sudden impact, but we were okay. The car was totaled, but we were not. We were all sore, and my neck was killing me, but we were alive with hardly a scratch on us.

I don’t think I quite realized it at the moment, but it has been clear to me in retrospect that just like my kids with the slide, I was facing my own test of courage. Just as I had observed their decision to rise to the occasion, they were watching mine.

Looking back at what happened, I realize now that I could have died. My kids could have died. Any of us could have been injured in a life-altering way.

And that doesn’t make me feel afraid. Instead, it makes me even more committed to using the time I have to make a difference. I want to do my part in God’s Kingdom work here on earth.

I’m more convinced than ever before that God is doing a great thing through our Internet Campus, and I’m still praying that God will give us His favor and allow us to reach record numbers of people

Please join me in praying that God will work in a supernatural way through our Internet Campus and that we’ll see significant growth in our online attendance and new volunteers through the second half of the year.