Out of control

I am going to be honest, I shouldn't be sitting here writing this post right now. I don't want this post to be a big deal at all, I am not writing this to be like "woah look at me." I am writing this to share an experience that made me and two of my friends value life even more.

God saved my life and two of my friends lives tonight on our way back to school. The toll road was snowy and icy as I drove back tonight and my little Honda Civic doesn't handle the best in the snow. We had just crossed over the state line and doing a solid 60 miles per hour. That was about as fast as we could go tonight in order to be safe. There were instances were I had to go 50 and other times where I cold get up to about 70, it all depended on how the roads were in that area.

So I was in the left lane and I was switching back to the right lane and in the middle there was snow and slush that had been built up like there usually is when it is snowing pretty hard. As I was slowly moving into the left lane I could feel myself beginning to lose control. Now I am sure a lot of you have felt this before. You hit a sheet of ice and for a brief second and your heart skips a beat because you don't feel safe. I was thinking this would be like all of those other times I had felt that way before.

As soon as I begin to lose control, I thought I would be able to maneuver out of it and be okay. That wasn't the case. I lost complete control and the back end of my car whipped around and we were swerving all over the place. We did a complete 360 and looked like we were heading towards the traffic going in the opposite direction and then did another 360 back to the other direction and it seemed like we were going straight into the ditch. As we were sliding out of control towards the ditch we did another 360 and it looked like we were going back into the median but we quickly spun back the right direction. We spun all the way around at least 4 times and when my car finally stopped moving we were facing the right direction and we were still on the road.

What had happened probably lasted 15 seconds but it seemed like it was a couple of minutes in the moment. I had never felt so out of control about anything in my life than I did when I was spinning out of control. I was trying to turn my wheel in whatever direction I could to try and help what was going on. Being desperately out of control is a feeling that I am not used to. Most people would say that they felt like their lives were controlled by the car in that situation, which is partially true. But our lives were in God's control.

There was a powerful feeling in my car as we begin to lose control. Nobody panicked. I remember thinking "oh crap, oh crap, oh crap," but I never felt like anything that bad was going to happen. Which is surprising because we were spinning so fast and all over the place. From the moment I felt like I lost control, I knew that God had control of what was happening. There weren't any screams, no yelling, and hardly any fear. That is the power of God. I think 95% of people who experience that might freak out a lot, but that just wasn't the case. There was an army of angels watching over us tonight as we were out of control.

Now there were a couple of things that happened and fell into place that had God written all over it. First thing that comes to mind is what I just talked about. There really wasn't an abrupt fear amongst us in the car. We all trusted that God was going to protect us. Second, I think of the timing. There were not any cars even close to us. For a road as busy as the toll road that is pretty shocking. There was a car a couple yards ahead of us when we begin to spin out but nobody behind us. I remember trying to look in the direction we were coming from every time my car spun in a circle just to make sure we weren't about to get hit. Third, is another example of the timing. We were actually running a little bit late due to the weather and some issues with back roads and if this would've happened 10 minutes earlier or 10 minutes after, we could've been surrounded by cars. Fourth, my car was fine. Which might seem a little silly to say, but it really is totally fine. After all the spinning around I thought something was going to be broken and we would have to sit there and wait for someone to come get us, but it was totally fine. Last but not least I think of church this morning. My mom started a ministry where adults from our church and choose a college kid and be prayer warriors for them. Scott, who is my guy told me before we left church today that he was praying for a safe drive back tonight and that prayer was answered.

I am still pretty shaken up to be honest with you, what happened tonight is one of those things you never want to happen, but you're glad you get to experience the amazing protection from God. I sit here and am thankful for another chance to value life even more. It was a good reminder that even when things seem out of control in your life that God is right there watching you and protecting you. Once I got back in my room, it hit me even more. I'm a very organized person so whenever I get back from places I like to get everything cleaned, organized, and put away but I couldn't do that tonight. I sat my stuff on the couch and went and sat on my bed and I cried. There was a lot of emotion that I was feeling, I feel bad because of what happened, especially with two friends in the car but I also so badly want to know what God has planned for my life because he continues to protect me (us) and show me (us) favor.

Tonight's a night I won't forget about anytime soon. I hope by me sharing this little story that you are open your eyes to all the ways that God is present and how he protects you every single day. I also hope that this is a wake up call to some people that our lives our valuable. Life is valuable! We can't miss out on the goodness that God has blessed us with.

God uses the craziest things to make us value life even more.