This was a little over 10 years ago now and it was definitely a life-altering event. I'll try to quickly get through the history leading up to the event, so here goes.
I grew up in a very small town (population 504) where we had one school, one gas station, two churches, and two bars. That was about it. My dad went to the Lutheran church and my mom went to the Catholic church. Being the youngest of four kids I basically evened it out as two kids typically went to church with dad and two with mom. I was baptized and had First Communion at the Catholic church and confirmation at the Lutheran church. Unfortunately, my parents were in the midst of a divorce by the time I was going to confirmation. As soon as I got through confirmation I basically walked away from the church, bitter and disenchanted.
For the next 10 years, I kept a chip on my shoulder and had a mindset that I didn't want anything from anyone I was prideful and self-sufficient. I managed to get a couple of two-year degrees (only took me four years), got a good job, bought a nice truck, bought a nice house, had a great girlfriend, had buddies renting rooms from me - I had everything I ever wanted. I partied like there was no tomorrow and lived a very prideful, selfish, self-centered lifestyle and had nothing to do with any church.
Looking back, I can only imagine that my pride was a stench in God's nostrils, so to speak. Slowly I began losing everything that I had worked so hard to acquire for myself. I left my job to try to try to join another financial firm and was sued by my old employer. The lawsuit failed, but they managed to ruin my chances to work for the new firm and they also managed to strong-arm out my renters as two out of three of my buddies still worked for them. Eventually, I lost my house, lost my girlfriend, and had to move home completely broken and humbled.
Through God's providence, I ended up sharing an office with two old friends who were born-again believers. They gently and consistently invited me to church with them week after week. For months I had ignored their offers, knowing full well that the lifestyle I was still living was in direct contradiction to what they were offering me. Something in me was finally stirred to the point where I made what I considered to be a cliché deal with God: I said God, if you're real, just show me something to help me believe, and then I'll start going back to church.
At this point, I was trying to get a business going (hence sharing an office with two businessmen) and doing chores on a farm in the evenings to try to make ends meet. I just so happened to wear my helmet this one night while driving my old 1983 Honda Motorcycle to the farm to do chores. I very, very rarely wore my helmet. Usually, I just wore a bandana because I thought it looked so much "cooler". The rest of my outfit was simply a pair of jeans, a t-shirt with no sleeves, and my backpack with an extra set of clothes inside. Around 11:30 PM that night I was driving home on the same gravel road I had driven for years, speeding at around 75MPH like I always did which was just fast enough to make my rear tire feel like it was floating on the gravel (I used to love that feeling), and I ran the same stop sign that I always ran. I just so happened to see headlights off to one side as I ran the stop sign, so I stopped watching the road and was closely watching my rear view mirror while keeping on the throttle in case it was actually a cop. I was so focused on the mirror that by the time the car finally passed I realized all too late that I was rapidly approaching the T-Intersection that I completely forgot about!
I slammed on the breaks but was going WAY too fast to stop. I leaped off of the motorcycle as I was losing control, likely still going about 45-50 MPH due to going 75MPH + before hitting the breaks, and managed to land on both feet on the gravel. Have you ever tried jumping off of the back of a truck that was even going 5MPH? You'd land on your feet but then you'd take a tumble because you're not expecting the forward motion when you hit the ground. When my feet hit the ground I had my back turned to my motorcycle and, facing sideways, hitting the ground with both feet at the same time. Landing at the speed of 45-50MPH I was literally snapped down to the ground and I hit the right side of my head so hard on the gravel that it looked like a tiger had scratched the side of my helmet and I was seeing stars for a couple of minuters after the fact. By the time I quit rolling and sliding I found myself several rows into a cornfield. I jumped up to my feet, still seeing stars on the right side due to the hit to my head, but found myself saying over and over: Thank you, God, I'm alive! Thank you, God, I'm alive!
Again, I was only wearing jeans, a t-shirt with no sleeves, a back-pack, and my helmet. The fact that I was wearing my helmet in itself was nothing short of a miracle. I simply never wore a helmet back then. I walked away from this accident which totaled my motorcycle with a small scrape on my left elbow, a scrape on my left wrist, and that same wrist was sprained but not broken. It wasn't until the next day that I realized the gravity of the situation; there was barbed wire fencing all around this cornfield! Somehow I managed to slide about 25 feet to the east which allowed me to get into the cornfield through a small field drive - right between the barbed wire fencing on either side! Clearly, it would've been impossible for me to A) even see the field drive as it was pitch black out at almost midnight, and B) somehow direct myself to slide through this field drive instead of getting caught up in the barbed wire fence. Had I not been wearing a helmet that night the impact of the right side of my face hitting the gravel road alone would've ended me. Again, simply a miracle.
Remeber that cliché promise I had made to God, not even a week before that accident? Well, I figured he had held up to his end of the bargain. I reluctantly held up to mine and began attending a small group bible study, then began attending church, and then went all in. New Years Eve 2008 I finally gave my life to Christ, knowing full well there was no reason I was even alive at that point aside from Divine Intervention.
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