TWO SECONDS DIFFERENCE ON THE FIRST OF DECEMBER

"Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you." (Isaiah 35:4)

It's about 11:20 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. I'm sitting at the five-year-old iMac computer at my grown children's apartment. I'm sipping a delicious cup of hot coffee- not a nice porcelain cup, but one of those throwaway cups you get at fast food restaurants. After what I'd experienced this morning, I felt I deserved a cup of McDonald's coffee, and it sure tastes good! I'm a planner. When I was pastoring a church, I was such a planner that I supposed I nearly drove people crazy. We Pentecostals like to "leave room for the Holy Spirit" to move in our services, but I had everything about the service planned out; I guess in case the Holy Spirit did not "move"! I won't bore you with all the details, but in virtually every area of my life, I'm a planner. When I get up, I mentally rehearse what I'll be doing over the course of the upcoming day. This morning, early, I did that the same way I always do. Today, my wife Mary Ann was to be running an afternoon practice for the children's Christmas musical which will be presented in a few weeks. Part of my duty was to pick up my son Jon in Framingham. Jon attends another church but was helping Mary ANN with the practice today - both during and after the church service. I got to Framingham a little bit earlier than I'd expected, but Jon was ready to go.

"I just want to go on-line a little bit, first," I told him, "then we'll go."

I also let Jon know the church would be serving some kind of lunch right after the service for those who'd be staying for the rehearsal. "Maybe pizza!" I announced. (I guess I hoped it might be pizza!)

As I pulled the car onto Waushakum Street, I turned the radio on. The announcer on WGBH-FM was warning that treacherous driving conditions existed in central Massachusetts. He cautioned that portions of Interstate 290 in the Worcester area were completely shut down, and that driving was also bad on parts of Interstate 190 in Worcester County. Driving in Framingham was perhaps a little bit slippery, but overall the roads were good and the cars were moving along fine. We crossed the line into Southborough on Route 9 and the roadway was in good condition with cars driving at (I'd guess) the speed limit. I did wonder how the roads would be once we got onto Interstate 495 and traveled farther northwest. North Central Worcester County sits at a higher elevation than does the Framingham/MetroWest area. I wasn't really nervous. I'd say I was just a tad apprehensive.

Upon driving the old Subaru onto the Interstate 495 Northbound entry ramp, I will admit I did get a very brief and fleeting thought: "I wonder if I'm making a mistake!" At first, 495 seemed pretty "normal". I'd say traffic was moving along just a little bit slower than usual. In other words, everybody was driving at between 60 and 65 M.P.H. and nobody seemed to be speeding. After proceeding about five or six miles, I noticed the cars were drastically slowing down. There was a police vehicle at the side of the road with all lights flashing. Within a couple of minutes, I could feel the road's slippery surface under the car's wheels. The scariest part of the trip was driving over bridges. Perhaps you've seen those signs on Interstate 89 in Vermont which state, "Bridge Freezes Before Road Surface". Well, those bridges sure do freeze when the temperature is "border line" as it was this morning! A couple of the bridge surfaces were "really bad"! Just past the exit for Route 62, the traffic was greatly slowing down and there was the sense that this whole situation was just the place where a person didn't want to be today! Then, something I never would have expected to take place HAPPENED:

Suddenly, I saw what appeared to be a large white blur in my rear view mirror! It was, in fact, a large white S.U.V. rapidly moving to the right, and positioned at a ninety-degree angle to the rest of the traffic! I can only describe the sensation as fast, bizarre, and scary! "What a beaut!" I yelled, as though the driver was doing that deliberately. Of course, the driver was not deliberately driving in that fashion, but it was an instant reaction; and I really wasn't processing what I was saying. It was a lot like Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration suggesting that three booths be build there, one for Moses, one for Elijah, and one for Jesus. Scripture tells us that Peter stated that, not really aware of what he was saying.

As I've tried to remember what happened in those moments, ironically I saw the S.U.V. in the mirror just behind my Subaru, but then I saw it at the right side of the car and moving ahead of the car! It was all very fast! The white S.U.V. was in fact, skidding and slipping and out of control. It went behind the Subaru, then to the right of the Subaru, then I saw it just ahead of us slide right off the road surface, go slightly airbound, and land on its left side! In a way, it was all like watching it in slow motion, and in a way it was terribly fast. It was shocking and terrifying!

Some weeks ago, I posted an entry on my blog stating that if I ever came upon a highway accident, I would stop. I instantly thought of that blog entry. I didn't stop. There was a large flatbed truck driving just ahead of us. That vehicle pulled over to the side of the road, and I could see one or two other cars in my mirror stopping. I know if my daughter Amy (a nurse) had been in the car, we'd have had to stop. I don't walk well on ice, at all. I quickly reasoned that the last thing I wanted to do was pull over, get out of the car, and dramatically slip and fall. Others were stopping, and I figured they would handle the situation.

Jon and I didn't scream or yell or anything like that. I just continued to drive along. I did begin to reflect, however. That S.U.V. was moving from left ot right in a fast, violent fashion which placed it directly behind my car. What if my car's position on the roadway was just slightly different? What if there had been a difference in timing of, say, two seconds? Had the S.U.V. slammed into the left side of the Subaru, it would have resulted in a very bad crash. I would almost certainly have been killed. Jon would have been either killed or very seriously injured. Two seconds. That's all the difference it would have made. Two seconds. Would I have even seen or been aware of what hit me? Probably not. There would probably have been an instant horrific impact and I would have been dead. It would have been about as fast and about as unexpected as part of President Kennedy's head being blown off, as most of us thought about and heard about during all the "Fifty Year Anniversary" telecasts last week. Dead. Instantly dead. Totally unexpected.

I recently told a friend that a Christian should always pray very briefly at the start of a drive. I don't always remember to do this, but just before I flipped on WGBH-FM, I had (internally) asked God to protect the car and give us a safe trip. Did that make the difference? I think it did. I took the exit for Route 117 and drove into Bolton. Route 117 was icy and the drive continued to be scary. I was most surprised, upon crossing into Lancaster, to find that road conditions were better. I fully expected them to be worse as we were traveling more and more to the north and to the west. It had occurred to me, following our near deaths, to phone Mary Ann and see how she was doing in her own drive up to Westminster and to discuss whether we should abort today's trips to church. I came very close to making the phone call, but I feared that if Mary Ann was on a particularly dangerous part of the journey and tried to answer my call, I could cause her to have a bad accident. I also wondered if having one hand off the wheel and talking on the phone would be a smart thing to do, and I quickly realized it would not be. As we approached the Exit for Route 13 on Route 2 Westbound, it was evident the road conditions were good there. I grabbed my phone, and noted there were four voicemail messages that had been left for me! The phone had been in the "vibrate" mode, and it was in a container in the dash area and not on my person. I was unaware that calls had come in. I drove off at the Route 13 exit and stopped in a parking lot. One of the messages was from Mary Ann, warning me that the roads were dangerous, that she was turning around, and that Jon and I should not make the trip. She had left that message over thirty minutes earlier. Boy, do I wish I'd have received that at the time of her call! Another message was from the pastor of Bread of Life Church saying Mary Ann was trying to reach me and that the roads were very bad in certain places. I managed to call each of them back.

Mary Ann warned that Route 2 in the Concord area had been a long sheet of black ice, with traffic struggling along at no more than 20 M.P.H. I knew I could not get back to Framingham on Interstate 495; nor could I get back on Route 2; nor could I try to take Interstates 190 or 290. This would prove to be challenging, but I took back roads from Shirley to Bolton to Hudson to Marlborough and into Framingham. I'm sure you can understand why I felt I "deserved" that McDonald's hot coffee when I got back to Framingham!

Only once before did I come this close to dying in a highway accident. In that incident (from late November of 1980) I was a passenger in a Cadillac that went completely out of control on Route 128 in Needham. The Cadillac was "all over the road" and narrowly missed several vehicles. How we survived that one, I don't know, except that it was a miracle of God! Today's driving event was about as bad. Some of you know that I've had off and on bouts with severe depression over the past several years. Like Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, I have "despaired even of life" (Paul's exact words in verse 8). I am one of those people who tends to get very "blue" in December if I feel the holiday will just mean a month of stress and difficulty. Honestly, early this morning in prayer I said to the Lord, "I don't like the way this month is starting out at all. It's not seeming like this month is going to go the way I want it to. I am facing many challenges that I don't want." Yeah, I told God that- this morning! Think I'd really like to have been killed instantly on Interstate 495?!

Well, I wouldn't have liked that at all!

Is God telling me to rejoice this month, to focus on Him, to believe intently His promises, and to do all I can to reach out to others and be a vessel of honor for Him at this precious season? Yes, I think He is doing exactly that.

Yeah, two seconds made all the difference on this first day of December.

I'm humbled, and I'm doing a lot of thinking, and I'm thanking and glorifying God!