It is, I think, time to get back to writing. This blog has been silent for the past two weeks as I pondered the implications of narrowly escaping what could have been a fatal accident. It was two weeks of grace and gratitude. When you have faced the possibility of death and been spared, every second becomes a gift, every moment an opportunity; a gift and an opportunity to be made available to the One who gave everything.
The week had started quietly, but at the beginning of the week, for no apparent or immediate reason, I had asked intercessors to carry me in prayer that week. Did they do so? On that note, we will remain silent. Sunday, I left by car for church as usual. On the highway, approaching the neighboring town, traveling at 110 km/h, I suddenly saw a car speeding towards me, coming from my left.
In a short moment, without thinking and with reflexes I didn't think I had, I swerved right just before the vehicle came towards me. I found myself forced off the highway, I took the exit following the person who, interestingly, simply turned around to get back on the highway. Obviously it wasn't their exit, so what was they thinking? I guess I'll never know; and probably neither will she.
But there is one thing I know, It's that God was there with me. Not only did He decide it wasn't time for me to join Him yet, He also prevented me from getting hurt. I also can't boast about the surreal calm and self-control I displayed while reacting instantly; angels were driving? I have to believe they were. I turned back, got back on the highway, and headed to the church, meditating on what had just happened.
Would it have been so terrible to die? For a Christian, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Would I have found it unpleasant to find myself in God's presence? I think not. However, a life would have been shortened without the fulfillment of God's will, and that is not God's plan. So, the last two weeks of grace and gratitude have been a time of dedication to the fulfillment of God's will, to the completion before leaving the earth of what God chose to send me to and keep on earth for.
There is a passage in Scripture that talks about appreciating the things that are truly valuable, the things that really matter. There are things that we leave behind when we leave this earth, and there are things that we take with us to heaven; these are the things that are truly valuable. And these are the things to which I intend to devote my life, my energy, my time, and my intellectual abilities. These are the only things that deserve my attention.
On Sunday I said to the church something I had heard myself say in prayer, namely that 'you have been made in the image of God, your life is too valuable to be 'spent' on things that have no eternal value.' It was the beloved Apostle Paul, who with his usual lucidity had declared Philippians 1:21-24 "...for me to live is Christ; and to die is gain; (22) but if I must live in the flesh, it is worthwhile;" explaining, and I paraphrase, that despite the desire to be with Christ He deemed it wiser to remain for the accomplishment of God's work.
I fear neither death nor life; death is the entrance into eternity and into the presence of the Master I adore, and life is the only opportunity given to me to magnify my Master and work for the extension of His kingdom.
Shalom.
Shalom!
