An encounter with a lonely stretch of road, an eighteen-wheeler, God and perhaps, another dimension in space and time...
Preface: I have never been one to tell stories or to stretch the truth to make it sound interesting. That's why I felt I would never have made a good evangelist. Actually, I thought of myself as quite boring. That's why I would lose myself in a song that I was writing or singing and I'm pretty sure that's why I did drugs as a teen. But what I am about to tell you actually happened. If I were a story teller, I could probably make it more interesting. But sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction and this "event" will be forever branded on my mind...
Between Midnight and TX-14 South
I was going home late that evening from Corsicana, Texas to where I lived in Mexia and I was all alone on TX-14 South driving my orange 72 Volkswagen Beetle which I had purchased almost a year prior and I had just over thirty miles to drive one way which by itself was no big feat but it just so happened I was attending a church service that ended later than most church services ended and after that, I went to eat, like any respectable Pentecostal would, and I had fellowship with the church folk after the service. I never was much of a night owl so I was pretty sleepy, to say the least, by the time I started home that night and I couldn't wait to get to bed.
As I drove further on down the road, I found myself nodding off so I rolled my windows down to get some fresh air to help me stay awake. What you might not know about me is, I was not the kind of driver that would easily veer off the road in my sleep, instead, I was more likely to let my foot off the accelerator and slow down to a crawl. Yes, it's happened before, that's how I know, but thankfully, this night, there weren't too many other vehicles on the road.
The closer I got to my destination, the sleepier I got. I soon began to take notice of these narrow yellow lines that were running down the middle of the highway and it wasn't long before I began to be hypnotized by them and as one line appeared, another line disappeared underneath the front of my car. It was like that hypnotist who always told his victims, "You are getting sleepy, very, very sleepy until, finally, I was. I was fast to sleep behind the wheel of my orange 72 Volkswagen Beetle.
Maybe the next thing I should have been aware of was St. Peter standing at the pearly gates, but instead, I was awakened by a noise that sounded more like an eighteen-wheeler when you're following too close behind it. And almost immediately I lifted my head out of my sleep-drunken stupor and I opened my eyes to see the rear of a large tractor trailer that was on the road in front of me. In but a moment and still in a daze, I noticed the stickers on the doors, the latch, the lock and the license plate and how I was coming on much too fast toward it. At this point, I was fully engaged and fearful that I would plow right into the back of this huge tractor trailer when I cried, “JESUS!”, it was an involuntary sound, as I braced myself and I slammed on the brakes.
Mind you, it wasn't that long before this night's terrifying experience, that a similar situation had taken place, one where I had lost control and the abundance of my heart was revealed with words, though involuntary as they may have been, they were less than desirable if they were to be the very last words I uttered on earth.
Well, suddenly, it felt like I was in a different world, "I should have run into it!", I thought in my mind. The truck was nowhere to be seen and it was as if my ears were opened for the very first time as I could hear the rubber from my own tires rolling on the highway. I looked this way and that peering into the darkness and the only thing that was illuminated was that which my own car's headlights could reach in front of me and there they were, those same narrow yellow lines, moving much slower now down the center of the pavement and I realized that I was the only one on this lonely stretch of road.
I was going slow enough by now, slowed to a crawl, and with my windows rolled down I could hear what sounded like hundreds, if not thousands of crickets chirping in the night air on both sides of the highway. Was I dreaming? or was this truck for real? If it was, all I can say is that God literally transported me like Philip to the Ethiopian eunuch when God sent him to minister to him. God took me Volkswagen and all, to a totally different place and time on the highway, an instant before something tragic happened. I know this as well, that God showed me something that was very important to Him and to me, and that was, he helped me to hear and to know what was in the abundance of my own heart. By this one thing, this one short, real instance in time, I realized where I was in my relationship with Him. Luke 6:45 reads, "For out of the abundance or the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks".
Someone once said our heart is like a tube of toothpaste. You never know what's in there until you get squeezed. Well, maybe you've been experiencing the squeeze lately and you're not too happy with what's in your heart. Call on Jesus just like I did and ask him to save you. He will come into your life and He will bless you with no less than the marvelous miracle of salvation. He will transport you out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of His dear Son and it will truly be like you are seeing and hearing for the very first time in your life. God bless you! and Amen.