There is always opportunity for life to bring us down. We can choose to be positive, or we can be negative – there is no room or time for neutral. I’ve gone through a storm that I was tempted to be brought down by just to come out on the other side into another storm that was even worse… and then another. I bet you’ve heard the warning: These things always come in threes. I’m going to share those moments – those few storms – because there is something beautiful to see in all of the heartache… and there’s also the after.
I was on my way to work one morning after dropping my daughter off at school and got into a car accident. There had been a reckless driver – manically weaving in and out of traffic – and had done an illegal U-turn right in front of the SUV in front of me. We weren’t going very fast – accelerating to about 35 mph – but I ended up rear-ending the SUV in front of me. I was at fault. No one was hurt, but I was technically at fault – and now without transportation. I had never even been in a car accident.
At the time of the accident, I was a single mom and child-support was a hit or miss, but mostly a miss. My trusty Honda had reached the point of needing a lot of TLC that I simply could not afford. Into the shop it would go for a new timing belt. The brand new (and first) credit card got a bit of use. A few weeks later it was something else. The credit card was feeling a bit too used (and I was feeling overwhelmed). Next it was the radiator… and the credit card was maxed out. I couldn’t keep up.
I rear-ended a very beautiful soul who came out like a mama bear on my behalf, telling the police that I was not at fault – she didn’t blame me at all – but that it was the reckless driver who had sped away in the opposite direction. To my surprise, I did not get issued a ticket and the points on my license went unscathed. The SUV the mama-bear was driving wasn’t even scratched, but my car was deemed totaled by my insurance company.
Three days after my accident, we were headed a couple hours away to spend the weekend with my aunt and grandparents. My cousin (my friend and former roommate) decided to ride with my daughter and I because we had gotten word that our Papa’s health was seriously declining. We were in the insurance-provided rental car and about 45 minutes out when we got the call that he had passed. We were so close to being able to have a few final moments with him but had missed it by less than an hour.
My grandfather had been a minister for the almost 3 decades that I knew him, but his greatest accomplishment was being a husband. That single role led to a long-lasting legacy. His service had a huge turn-out because of his years in ministry, but it turned into so much more than the plethora of people showing up. My older brother who had chosen to estrange himself for years decided he should come home. I’m not sure I had ever seen such joy on my grandmother’s face than when my brother walked through her front door and hugged her for the first time in almost a decade.
It was bitter. It was beautiful. We had lost, but we had certainly gained, as well. Relationships were restored, others appropriately shifted through the grief, and we came together as a living legacy.
It feels odd to say that life returned to normal, but it came as close as possible. I was able to find a new-to-me vehicle, I was checking in with my grandma every evening, and my relationship with my now husband was blossoming into a future filled with hope. Life events – death – has a way of doing that. I felt like the pain-causing vise was finally loosening its grip from my heart.
But what is that saying again? These things always come in threes. I’m not superstitious, but this was a very true saying for that month in my life.
It was February of 2009, and we were experiencing a deeper cold than normal. When does it hang around 18˚ for several days in a row in Georgia? And how was I supposed to know that the sprinkler pipes in the attic of my apartment were insufficiently insulated? I arrived home from picking up my daughter after work to the apartment manager meeting me at my door to ask if I could let her and the fire department in. What?!
Ice cold water was pouring from the ceiling, down the walls, and slowly draining into the apartments below mine. All of our belongings were soaking up water and becoming damaged. All. All. All. I had originally been fretting about what to make for dinner, and now I was trying to figure out where we would sleep, what clothes we could wring out for the next day, and how was my insurance company going to react after just closing my previous claim for my totaled car.
It was a bit of a nightmare, but there was still grace for each moment. I can look back and see where God moved on my behalf, where I should have responded differently (I’m certainly not perfect), and how – in the end – God did work everything out for our good. There were moments of adrenaline, anguish, and uncertainty, but there were so many more moments of good.
But God doesn’t stop there. Now I can share my story to encourage others who are facing trials, hardships, loss, and those who are struggling to find hope. We triumph over the enemy’s schemes through sharing our testimonies (Revelation 12:11). We are able to latch onto a smidgeon of hope – and more – because what God does for one of us, He’ll do again (Revelation 19:10). He has no favorites (Romans 2:11), loves the lost just as much as the saved (John 3:16), and even left the riches of heaven so He could take our punishment (Isaiah 53:4-6).
As I watch the devastation in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee unfold (ref. Hurricane Helene, September 2024), more and more each day, there are also moments of beauty that can only be explained as God moving. The enemy brings about destruction, yet God is not leaving us without hope or without a future. The testimonies of His goodness are trickling out of the mountains every single day.
This is a call to arms – start sharing your God stories. Those moments that God has moved on our behalf are not for us to have a cush life or to keep quiet about. They aren’t just to make us comfortable. They are meant to be shared with others so that their faith can take flight. It is our job to share God’s light through our testimony (I Peter 3:15-16) so that others can latch onto that same hope and come to know the goodness of or Lord.
I welcome you to share. Start sharing your God moments on social media. Share them as a comment here, share them at work, at church, and at school. Can you imagine how much impact we would make if we spoke out about the many times that God did what only God can do? The times that He provided a new car, a family restoration, and a bigger/better apartment are stories to share. And I have so many more!
God is so good, and we need to hear those testimonies. They will boost the faith of those around you and you might be surprised at how your own faith gets a boost just by sharing. By remaining silent, we are choosing to stay neutral. Neutral is not an option. Let’s turn the bitter into beauty.