Accident Forgiveness

"It's not what happens to you that's important. It's what you do when that disaster comes that makes all the difference in the world."  ~Kathryn Kuhlman
 

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"Come down Grand."
"I had an accident."

"Are you okay?"

"I am. But I'm not sure about everybody else."

What began as a routine evening had just turned into a parent's nightmare. And I was the parent.

Our seventeen-year-old son had just left the house to go across town to eat homemade ice-cream with his cross country buddies. He had four friends with him in his late-model 4-Runner.

That night involved hospitals, tornadoes, and a trip to Iowa City. Four walked away with minor injuries. One was taken by ambulance to the university hospital a couple of hours away for surgery. Her hand had hit the pavement and would be disfigured for life.

Her response would speak life or death into my son's broken and guilt-ridden heart.

After her first of several surgeries to clean the wound of glass fragments and road gravel, her first words to our son were, "You know we will have to be best friends from now on." To me she said, "I'm not mad."

That choice makes her a hero in my book.

 

Starting a new chapter...

A clean sheet of paper can be refreshing...and intimidating to an author. A fresh start and a clean slate represent so many possibilities and the freedom to imagine. New chapters are especially exciting when the previous one has been filled with plot twists, suspense, and conflict. Perhaps the new chapter will bring resolution. However, new chapters can also be accompanied by a heap of uncertainty. So many plot possibilites with so many options for endings.

I didn't do much writing last year. I had big plans and possible opportunities that were forced to the bottom of my to-do list and replaced by visits to the doctors' offices, hospital rooms, and funeral pews.

You see, I have this series of novels I plan to write. They are still in my brain, waiting for my fingers to unleash them onto the page. I think about them often. I have outlines and charts and timelines with story ideas galore. Funny thing. Many of my ideas seem to have hopped off of the storyboard and into my life since I jotted them down.

People have suggested I need to stop brainstorming so that that trend stops. My first inclination was to agree. Then I began to think, maybe God was requiring me to live the thing out before I write the things down. (Slightly more comforting than jinxing myself.) And then the other day as I was considering all of this, a new thought came to me.

We were right in the middle of one of my plot scenarios--in a hospital room talking to a doctor about possible causes of some odd symptoms. I began asking questions that were very good. Good because I had spent some time researching this exact thing for one of my characters.

That's when the thought hit me: Could it be that the topics for my novels are part of a bigger story. A personal story. A story written by Someone Else. Maybe I didn't invite the circumstances by listing them, but that God was preparing me for what He knew was going to be part of my story.

Life brings new chapters complete with options and angst.

My life last year was one of those chapters that held many twists and sorrows. Relocation, illness, death,  absence, and uncertainty all made appearances on my pages.

The final page of 2012 has been turned and 2013 is just beginning to reveal itself. Another relocation is on the horizon. Sunny Florida in January looks appealing as I gaze out of my bay window at a snow-frosted Michigan lawn. But I am not the author of my own story. I don't control my own circumstances, just my responses. Life happens and fortunately the Author of the Ages continues to write.

Do the Shuffle!

Times are tough! Did I hear an "amen"? Today my son tells me there is going to be a lockdown at school because of a rumored gang fight. Yesterday I read that China is joining the chorus for a global currency to be established. Unemployment is up. Stocks are down. Punches are being thrown right and left. Even nature is joining in the fray. Blizzards in the West. Flooding in the Midwest. Twisters in the South.

What's a body to do when one of the punches lands? Like a phone call. One that announces that your income has just been reduced by ten percent. Of course, that is on top of the drop of your stock portfolio that came earlier that wiped out retirement funds. An ole "one-two punch".

Well, I chose to dig out the Nikes and take it to the road. I chose to clip on the iPod Shuffle loaded with praise music and do a little worship on the run. So I chugged down the road working up a sweat and a beet red face (those who know me know what that looks like!!! Not a pretty sight...) I thanked God that we still had a job. Promised Him that their ten percent was not His ten percent. Thanked Him for letting us spend the winter at the beach. Thanked Him for our family and our health. Thanked Him for the baby blessing that will be delivered in August. Thanked Him for His goodness.

Then, I started to formulate a plan. Here is how it went...when I finished my out-and-back, I'd do my cool-down walk along the boardwalk. (yes, stinky and beet-faced.) And when I reached the end, I would walk out to the edge of the sand and sing whatever song shuffled onto my playlist to Him at the edge of His ocean. I was getting kinda excited about this! I liked this plan. Decided whatever the song said, I'd do it. If it said "with lifted hands", I'd raise 'em high. If it said "down on my knees", I'd bow down (after a run, I might not get back up, but I'd get down there!!) If it said "I will dance", I'd do a jig.

Man, I was feeling good! I couldn't wait to make my offering at the ocean! But do you know what happened. None of what I had planned. Not a single thing. I walked down to the edge as a song wound down. My heart raced with anticipation. What would the next song be and how had God chosen for me to worship Him?

The song started. I had never heard it before. Couldn't sing a single word. Had to be still and listen. And you know what happened? God sang a song over me!

The LORD your God is with you,

He is mighty to save.

He will take great delight in you,

He will quiet you with his love,

He will rejoice over you with singing."
Zephaniah 3:17