True story. I think it was the spring of 1993, I was working the evening shift at Charter Vista Behavioral Health and a person knocked frantically at the door near the nurses station. The person, man or woman I can’t remember, said there had been a head-on collision and a car was on fire. I grabbed the fire extinguisher and started running toward the crash. With the weight of the extinguisher and the distance to the crash, I started getting tired. A vehicle was also heading that way so I jumped on the hood and continued till I saw the burning car.
I ran to the side of the car window where the windows had already burst from the heat. As I pulled the pin on the extinguisher and begin to disperse the white powder on the extremely hot flame, it pushed the flame back long enough for me to see a person that was charred from the flames. Immediately, so I was told, I went into shock. I didn’t know what to do at that point since the person I came to save was obviously not able to be saved. I went and sat down at a nearby tree while the emergency vehicles began to arrive.
During that time in my life, I was a Christian, but not living like it. I had made good choices except in relation to my girlfriend at the time. We were too close, and I had been praying for God to get my attention because I felt like I was powerless to change course.
The next day I went out to the crash site because I just needed to process what was going on in my heart. There was more going on than just the woman who had died. I was trying to gain life by living it my own way and God was using this situation to show me.
As I approached the place where the burnt car had been, things had fallen out of the other vehicle that was hit, that one rolled but didn’t burn. One such item that I found was a green New Testament Bible that was already opened right up to this verse, Mark 8:36 “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world yet forfeits his very soul?”
God was speaking directly to me.
The lady that died was on her way to Charter Hospital. She had set up an appointment to see a counselor because of suicidal thoughts. She was a mom of many. From what I remember it was something like 5 or more kids. (Maybe someone will recognize this story from NW Arkansas.) Anyway, tonight I was watching the movie, “Do You Believe?” and, when it came to the scene at the end, I was reminded of this story that have I told to some, preached to others, but never written down.
I think today, if in the same situation, I would do better. I would have gone to the other vehicle that had people in it that still needed help. During the time, I was so shook up by the shock of death, that I was paralyzed to the other needs around me. Namely the people that were hanging upside down in their vehicle about 50 feet away.
You can’t save everyone, but the ones who
you can’t save shouldn’t discourage you from seeking to help for the others who want to be saved.
God wants to take those who try to save themselves from death and turn them into people who don’t have any fear. The reason they don’t fear is because, “They know whom they have believed in…”
and death cannot stop the believer in Jesus.
Please keep us in prayer as we return to Haiti to help those wanting to be saved.