As we drove down North Brady Street, the rain began to pick up, coming down in torrential waves. As we approached the red light, my mom announced the tires were “spinning out” due to the excess water and pebbles/sand on the road from construction. “The car is not going to stop; we’re going to have to go through the red light,” she said unnervingly.
The
minute after I processed those alarming words, I glanced up to see a semi-truck
getting ready to come through the intersection…the same intersection we were
supposed to pass through…The next phrase from my Mom almost seemed to be
delivered in slow motion, “Brace yourselves.”
We
were going to HIT this semi…no way around it.
Our greatest fear was what part of this 18 wheeler was going to take the
impact of our puny car; I deducted that we were going to hit dead center. All I could picture next was either being
trampled/mangled or dragged away by this blue monster. Heaven seemed like the obvious option with
this collision.I could hear my mom’s heart pounding as well as her foot as she continued to stomp on the brakes. The car squealed, slid, and slowed just enough for us to clear the middle of the semi. Our green machine hit back quarter of the 18 wheeler. The semi sheared our hood off, flattened the tires, and knocked a hole in the engine block twice the size of this picture below:
Mom,
Chris, and I walked away from the wreck with only bumps and bruises. My knee had been sliced open by the dash with
the force of crash yet no stitches were required. The DPD Officer dispatched to the call..My
Dad. You see both of my earthly and Heavenly
Fathers responded that day.
If
God’s hand had not intervened with the brakes, death was in our midst. We would have been smashed under the weight
of that truck. Looking back on this
story it reminds me that I AM TO DIE DAILY!
Galatians 2:20 states, “I have
been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” We are called to die to self!
Dying
to self means resisting the temptation to do what everyone else is doing when
you know it is wrong. Dying to self
means forgiving instead of harboring a grudge.
Dying to self means putting down the remote control and picking up the
Bible. Dying to self means praying when
you would rather be sleeping. Dying to
self means swallowing your pride and telling someone about Jesus Christ. Dying to self means doing what God wants you
to do rather than doing what you want to do.
This
choice means holy living! Holy living involves a daily decision to surrender
to the lordship of Christ. It involves
yielding our will to God and adopting His perspective. The Bible has given us so many awesome
examples of this precious lifestyle.
Look at the
day Mary forfeited her reputation…She fully died to self for holy living in
God’s will and for the birth of our Savior.
What about the day Joseph sacrificed his feelings and pride to die to
self? He raised our Savior! He lived for God. Examine
the life of Jesus; He is the visible expression of God's holiness.
God wants
our minds and hearts to be filled with His holy qualities. As our lives are
transformed, we will project the light of His holiness into the darkness of
this hopeless world. Real life---abundant life---begins with ART OF DYING TO
SELF.
