My first car was very
special to me for many reasons. My dad did not keep it a secret
that if any of his six kids wanted a car that they could go out and
save the money themselves and buy their own a car. Even though I did
have a job, as a impatient teenager I felt that it would take
me forever to save enough money for a down payment. I
prayed about this and God answered my prayers. My mom went with me
to help buy a car by co-signing and helping me with the down
payment which I would pay her back. Did I mention that the good Lord
allowed my dad to be out of town during this time for the first time
in years.
I was just a teenager and I
was so excited to drive my first car. Many of the high school kids
back in the 1970's never wore their seat belt. It just did not
appear cool to my friends and me. So I had decided to never wear my
seat belt because looking cool was far more important than being
young and dumb.
I will always
remember the first day that I drove my new muscle car being
fully insured. it was a 1969 Chevy Chevelle Super Sport. It had over
325-375 horsepower and this was stock without doing any
modifications. I wanted to look cool with my friends so I knew that
wearing a seat belt was not a option as I went to go pick them
up.
What I'm about to say is
very important to me because it helped save my life.
And I hope the younger
generation who are driving on the road today please read and believe
my story.
I was very excited as I got
inside my muscle car, I
checked my mirrors before I started to back out of my parents
driveway. Right before I started to turn on the radio,
The strangest feeling of
hearing a inner calm voice telling me to put my seat belt on.
Hearing the voice was not strange, as I have heard it so many times
before and I just summed it up as the last words of my
Mom's concerned voice for her son as I headed out the
door.
As I started to drive down
the road a few miles this feeling to wear my seat belt was becoming
so much stronger that I could not ignore it anymore.
So I drove into a
supermarket parking lot so that I could stop the car and shake off
this feeling of putting on my seat belt.
I realized that there was
something supernatural in the way that I was being led to put on my
seat belt, and I knew that it was not just hearing the voice of my
parents resonate inside of me telling me to buckle up for
safety.
So I reluctantly decided to
put on my seat belt, I told myself that when I got over to my
friends house that I would unbuckle my seat belt there before I
picked up my friends.
Within just a few minutes I
was pulling onto one of the busiest streets in town called Mount
Rushmore Street. It was the street that led the countless tourist up
to see the National Monument called Mount Rushmore.
I was driving no more than
a couple of minutes on Mount Rushmore when I needed to
take a take a left turn. I noticed that their was a car in front of
me that was coming from the opposite direction that also wanted to
take a left turn.
Everything seemed
fine as I was taking my left turn and the car approaching
in front of me started to take their left turn.
What I did not see was a
tourist speeding right up behind the car that was taking a left turn
in front of me. So right out of no where this tourist switched
lanes from behind the car turning in front of me and since I
was already turning left which blocked the tourist from speeding on
down the road.
I tried to get out of his
way as I stomped on the gas, I yelled for God to save me. With over
350 horses under the hood of my car I could not get out of the way
as I heard my tires squealing in one place.
The tourist and his family
were going so fast that he hit me on the passenger side with such
force that he knocked me out of the four lane road. All I remember
next was that I was headed straight for another car that was about
to pull onto Mount.Rushmore. I saw the driver put both of his arms
in front of him thinking that my much bigger car was going to drive
right over his hood.
The good Lord allowed me to
steer my car from driving over the hood of his car and I was
able to drive onto the public park grass before I
stopped.
Here is what I would like
the younger generation to understand about how God blesses us
even if we are in a 3 car accident.
God never said for us to be
thankful "FOR" everything, He said for us to be thankful "IN"
everything.
God doesn't want me to be
thankful for being in the 3 car accident, but He does expect me to
be thankful for something from that 3 car accident.
I was thankful that the
tourist and his family were not seriously hurt.
I was thankful that my car
did not ride over the hood of the much smaller 3rd car with the
possibility of killing the driver.
I was even thankful that my
dad was out of town for a few days and had time to cool
down.
I knew how badly damaged my
car was, I had people who saw the accident from the public park who
told me that they could not believe that I lived through it.
I thanked God for answering
my prayers in allowing me to keep my car from the junk
heap.
When they took my car to
the body shop to determine how much damage was done, the body shop
owner told me that if I would have sustained another $100.00 damage
that the insurance would have wrote off my car as 100% being
totaled.
Not only was I able to keep
my muscle car after it was put back together from the body shop.
I was thankful to God that
I was able to be obedient to His spiritual voice to put on my
seat belt that saved my life that day. What would have happened if I
was not alone as I pulled out on that fateful day out of my parent's
driveway.
What if I had turned on the
radio instead of listening to that still quiet voice that was
nagging me to do the right thing, would I have put on my seat belt,
I don't think so.
What would have happened if I did reach my
friends house where the only words that I could hear were from
the intense peer pressure of my friends telling me that it's all
about looking cool and I agreed to not wear my seat belt while we cruised
down Mount Rushmore Road. Would we still have had a accident
that day or in the near future? The wild and crazy way we drove 375
horsepower muscle cars back then, I know so.
I should have woke up from
surviving that 3 car accident. I guess thats why they call
teenagers young and dumb because we literally believe were
invincible. Believe me when I say this, God has a way of getting our
attention to where our eyes are focused on Him. It was not long
after I got my 69 Chevelle SS 300 plus horsepower muscle car back
that I started to race on the streets with my friends. We were never
serious in racing, we just loved to race where ever we could find a
open road with any traffic or people. On this particular day we were
cruising on the freeway and there was no traffic in front of us for
a long ways. So we both opened up our four barrel carburetors and we
were both going over 120 miles per hour because back then the
speedometer read 120mph and the needle was all the way
over.
We were laughing and having
a great time, when up ahead about a mile up the freeway was somebody
pulling on the freeway from some ranchers dirt drive way. Even
though it was a mile up the road. Going over 120 miles per hour
meant that we were going to collide in less than 30 seconds with the
rancher that pulled innocently out on the road who never saw us. I
found myself screaming for God to save us and I will never race
again. It was a act of God that we went screaming by the rancher and
I don't just mean the sound of our engines and tires squealing. What
made this so dangerous was both of us had to go off the road and fit
into a single lane as we drove by him hoping he would not go into
our lane. Our biggest concern was not killing someone from what
we thought was just harmless fun between friends. I'm happy to say
that I did quit racing that day and today there are many places that
people can race that is professionally set up so that teenagers and
adults dont hurt themselves or other people
If you ever hear your inner
voice tell you to do something that you know is right. No matter how
uncool you think it might look, especially if your friends are
drinking and driving. Just tell them something else just came up.
(like plans of saving your life) Do it because being obedient to
God's voice will keep you from being "young and dumb" and
you will be blessed for it by living another day.
Did I mention that God
blessed me for being obedient to His voice by having
the owner of Kenny's body shop paint my "Soon to look brand new
car "Candy Apple Royal Blue" on a Silver Base, which was not
standard paint" (The guys out there know what I'm talking
about)
Not only could you
literally see my car cruising down the freeway from a mile away, if
you could by chance look inside as I was driving, you would see me
with my seat belt on praising God for allowing me to live
another day because He is that real.
"We felt we
were doomed to die and saw how powerless we were to help ourselves;
but that was good, for then we put everything into the hands of God,
who alone could save us." 2 Corinthians 1:9
God
believes in you
Reverend
Michael Cartwright
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Be blessed
