The Hand of God

In my lifetime I have had only one memorable near-death experience {just so you know: never, NEVER use all-metal pliers to remove a broken lightbulb from a lamp that is still plugged in}

Now I have two.

I was driving with a friend to Minnesota for Labor Day weekend. One of my best friends is living there currently and we'd snatched the only days we had open between work and college and family vacations to make the most of it.

We were about halfway there. Traffic wasn't bad - there were too many cars on the road to cruise and we discovered that the cruise control on my car didn't work anyway - and we were following a string of cars at 70-some miles per hour.

Up ahead we noticed that a lot of cars were swerving in and out. We naturally wondered why but since there was basically no shoulder between the road and the ditch, I wasn't too keen on driving out on it unless I knew why. {Mind you, this all happened much faster than it sounds}.

Suddenly the car in front of us swerved out at the last minute and we saw what was causing the disturbance.

A blown semi tire was lying in the middle of our lane.

I didn't have time to get out of the way and we were going to fast to stop. I don't think my foot even hit the brake as we drove straight into it. My friend shouted not to swerve right because we would hit the tank truck next to us so I did the only thing I could and wrenched the wheel to the left.

We went skidding somewhere; I have no idea what direction. A cloud of dust - just like it does in movies - kicked up and surrounded us. We couldn't see a thing. All I remember is screaming my friend's name and her screaming mine with an incredible sense of helplessness. My only conscious thought at the moment was "so this is the end". I didn't define "end" because it could have been anything. The end of our trip. The end of my car {my sister totaled her car two months ago in a freak accident. I wasn't expecting anything less.}. The end of our lives hadn't really yet been realized when the car suddenly stopped moving and the dust began to settle.

For half a second we just sat there and then I realized the car was still in drive and that we were moving forward. I slammed it into park and stared out the windshield at the oncoming traffic.

And then the miracles began to reveal themselves.

Miracle #1. We were both alive. We breathlessly asked each other over and over "are you ok?" "are YOU ok?" until we realized that we were both saying the same thing and neither of us was answering the question.

Miracle #2. The man in the tank truck we could have hit had pulled over on the other side of the road and when I rolled down my window he called over to see if we were ok. When I said we were he told us we were lucky because we'd done a complete 360 and hadn't hit or been hit by anything.

Miracle #3. We were parked neatly and safely on the side of the highway, granted we were turned the wrong way, but there was enough room for me to open my door and get out without getting hit.

Miracle #4. The ditch we landed in was very shallow and we'd easily be able to drive out if the car was still driveable.

Miracle #5. Once we'd spent some time thanking God that we were alive, my friend got out of the passenger side and checked the tires and the car. Everything was intact and there wasn't a scratch on it. I handed her the keys and said she could drive now.

Miracle #6. A State Trooper arrived on the scene and removed the tire before anyone else hit it and spun off the road to hit us. He then held back traffic in one lane of the highway while a friendly semi driver stopped traffic in the other.

Miracle #7. We drove out of the ditch and twenty minutes later were back on the road as if nothing had happened.

I don't know how anyone can say that God is not real or that He doesn't care. I have seen His hand and it was covering me.

Till next time!

10 Reasons Why I Don't Actively Promote Coffeeshops

1. I feel like a fish out of water the minute I walk in the door and realize I can't see because the lights are so dim. (Does drastically reducing your sight somehow enhance the taste experience?)

2. The signs are always written in chalk in some sort of flourishy cursive which looks folksy but is actually impossible to read. Cute, but I already need a dictionary.

3. I'm limited in my size options because I don't know how to pronounce the names they give their cups.

4. They ask if I want shots as if that's something perfectly normal (No thanks. I'm not that fond of needles...)

5. The only thing affordable on the menu is the regular coffee, which tastes like they brewed a teaspoon of water in an entire sack of grounds. I have yet to discover the correct poundage of sugar required to make this drinkable.

6. I'm either working the pitcher of half-and-half wrong or it's perpetually two drips from empty whenever I need it.

7. I can't justify spending half my hourly rate on a cup of tea I could make at home with 5 cents worth of ingredients.

8. I freeze when asked if I want to add anything to my drink because, first of all, I have no idea what they have in those four hundred bottles on the counter or how they might taste mixed with my order and secondly, I don't know how many squirts would actually enhance the general flavor experience. ( I have learned, however, that three squirts do not.)

9. The menu is always behind the counter so I have to awkwardly stand in front of all the incredibly friendly baristas as I take twenty minutes to decide that I'll have the same thing I had the last time I came.

10. I'm not nearly passionate enough about coffee to endure the above 9 reasons on any sort of regular basis or educate myself on  the basics of coffeeshop lingo.

This is my confession.

Till next time!

The Adam and Eve Syndrome

Today I ate a plum and stapled backlogged pages into my journal.

Why do you need to know this?

I have absolutely no idea.

The plum was delicious. The stapling was victorious.

Do any of you journal? If so, you may understand my pain.

I never, ever, ever want to look in my journal again and see that the last date was more than two weeks ago - after the most eventful two weeks of my life. 

Well, not quite.

You see, I read a book on journaling a few months ago and it turned my style upside-down.

The author's biggest challenge (to me, that is) was being "bare naked honest".

Sounds a little...revealing, don't you think?

I tried it.

Aside from the fact that it now takes me at least twice as long to record everything, every time I want to write anything I also must go into the back yard and remember where I buried it last. And recall the 20 digit passcode on the wrought iron security box once I dig 50 feet down to retrieve it.

  In the words of Shakespeare (loosely located) "you jest".

And I do.

There are too many wee pitchers around my house to fall into 50-foot holes.

But in all seriousness, though it has been difficult and awkward and downright frightening (and I will admit that I have chickened out on a regular basis), it's done me a lot of good and made my journal inestimably more interesting to read.

It's also encouraged me to be more honest with God.

I don't know what it is about the human mind that thinks we can hide things from God by not telling Him directly (perhaps this came from Adam and Eve? Because it worked so well for them...), but I've always shied away from voicing things aloud or even in prayer to Him because they're such deep secrets or such cherished hopes or such awful deeds.

News flash: Psalm 139:2 "You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar."

I can't hide a blessed thing from Him anyway.

In light of this, I've been challenged to be candid with God. He knows it all already, but it's a trust thing. He doesn't want to know my secrets because He's omniscient, He wants to know my secrets because I trust Him enough to voice them to Him. And, since I'm not telling Him anything new, He's not going to be surprised or horrified or shocked by what I say. What matters to Him is that I trust Him enough to entrust whatever it is to Him.

The friend who I don't hesitate to trust - that's what God wants to be.

Until next time!