This is my personal story of how God protected me, as a young man, from very serious injury or death. It is my prayer, that sharing my story with you, will serve to strengthen your faith in Him.
The old car I drove was not in the best of shape. As a teen-aged boy, I kept it up the best I could, but I was not a mechanic, and I had little experience with cars. The current problem was that the muffler had come loose again. Though I kind of liked the sound the car made, as I drove it through the neighborhood, I knew it had to be fixed.
I was at an age when I tried to be independent. In other words, I thought I could take care of things myself. So, rather than ask my dad to help me, I decided to tackle the problem myself. I invited a friend over after school, and we undertook to reattach the muffler that hung loose under the car. I drove the car onto our graveled driveway and scotched the back wheels. Then I placed a bumper jack under the front bumper and raised the car enough for my friend and I to squeeze underneath.
We both wiggled under the car lying on our backs, and began wiring up the muffler with some hay baling wire. Everyone knows, of course, that baling wire can fix almost anything.
To position the muffler back where it was supposed to be, we had to put some lateral (sideways) pressure on it. Just as we had it in position and were about to wire it into place, the jack at the front of the car began to lean, and in a split second, the car came crashing down on top of us. It took us a few seconds to realize what had happened, and then the panic set in. I asked my friend if he was OK. He said that he was, but that the frame of the car was resting on his chest. The same frame had caught my head and pinned it sideways against the hard gravel of the driveway. As I look back on this situation, I thank God that my head had been turned sideways to look toward the falling jack, when I heard it start to move. Had I been looking straight up, I am sure my head would have been crushed.
At the time of the accident though, I had difficulty seeing myself as fortunate. As we both reassured each other that we were OK I realized that each time my friend exhaled, the pressure on my head increased, and was almost unbearable. I remember saying something like, "Quit breathing, you are squashing my head!". As my friend tried to shift his body to alleviate some presure on me, we realized that we were both trapped, and would not be able to escape this situation by ourselves. We began to call for help, and by God's grace, my daddy was in the house, and he heard us calling. He came bursting from the house, and realizing our situation, he grabbed the front car bumper with his strong right arm and lifted it enough to relieve the pressure on my head and my friend's chest. Keeping upward pressure on the bumper, he replaced the bumper jack with his left hand and soon had the car lifted off us.
After a brief visit to the emergency room at the local hospital, my friend and I were pronounced healthy and very lucky (blessed!). My bloody ear had small gravel imbedded in it, but there was no permanent damage done. (I suppose that statement is somewhat debatable, depending on who you talk to. I'm sure some people say I have been somewhat "cracked" since that incident.)
As I look back on the entire accident, and the events leading up to it, many thoughts flood my mind. Had I asked my father to help me at the first, he would have had the proper and safe solution to the problem. How often do we set out to solve our own problems without asking our Heavenly Father to help us. God stands ready to help us with any problem we might have, but we often are too stubborn or independent to ask His help. As in this situation, we often wait until our situation is hopeless, before we call on Him.
What a wonderful joy it is to know that God is ready and willing to help us with all our daily problems and cares, no matter how small or how big. What a difficult lesson it is to learn to depend on Him for all our daily needs. What a joy it is to feel the Power of His Mighty Hand, as he lifts our burdens and worries from us!
Here because of Him,
Dr. Mike Hinze
God loves you! He loves you so very much, that He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to die for you!
Jesus desires to know you personally, and for you to know Him. He says, "Behold, I stand
at the door and knock".
If you would like to know Jesus personally, you can do so by confessing to Him that you are a sinner, and that you know you cannot save yourself. You can pray and ask Jesus to come into your heart and life as Savior and Lord, and He will do it. If you want to know more about how to ask Christ to be your Savior, please click below:
Click Here to read a simple Sinner's Prayer that you can pray to receive Christ as your Saviour
