SO, THIS IS HOW IT ENDS"

February 28, 1990, seemed like any other day working off midnight shift at Blue Circle Cement in Calera, Alabama.  I had looked forward this morning for seven days.  For seven straight nights my oiler and I burned the cement kilns.  We counted down the nights of the dreaded “hoot owl” with virtually no problems.  We did have to stay past the last shift for an hour and attend a monthly TAKE TWO safety class.

The theme that morning was to report all accidents, no matter how minute.  As we left the class we talked of our plans for our two days off.  We each had important things to do.  I had to visit the hospital where a church member was scheduled for surgery.  I was going and ready to visit her.  Also, I had to prepare sermons, two Lord’s Suppers and two baptisms.  My priority was to get home, shower, dress as a pastor, and head for the hospital. 

I never made it.  On the way home, an eighteen-year-old decided he would practice as an Indy 500 race driver on my side of the highway.  I knew there was a school bus in the area, and I was being cautious as a Firebird passing three cars on a hill suddenly was flying toward me.  I realized that day of departure from this life was quickly coming to an end. 

I thought to myself, “Well, this is it.  This is how my life ends.”  My time of departure was at hand and what a way to go in a wreck.  All I could see was a head-on collision with multiple internal injuries and possible death.  I had heard that your life flashes before you when death is coming.  From the moment I saw the Firebird to impact was three seconds.  To this day when I pass the place of the wreck I count, one thousand one, one thousand two, BAM!

As the Firebird floated toward me all the things that were important in my life were fleeing quickly.  No time to tell my wife and Andy, Angel, and Aaron that I loved them, that I would miss them, no time to say goodbye.  No time to complete all those things I started.  I knew that I was on the downside of life at 37, but down all that preparation for my family and my life was apparently finished. 

Had I finished my course so soon?  I thought, I have two years remaining at New Orleans Theological Seminary before really getting started.  No, closing at eighty plus miles an hour Firebird.  Firebird, named for the mythical dead bird rising to life from ashes was flying toward me with impending death.   

Had I fought a good fight?  Since the time I became a Christian, had I done the best I could?  Suddenly there was no time to pray, to study, to minister, or do anything for the Lord.  Suddenly, my goals changed, changed to survival, that which I could do was think, and that had to be fast.  I was at the mercy of God.  There was no screaming or crying, just thinking how God was calling me to my heavenly home.

Then, God showed me hope.  He showed me an opening.  Taking those talents, experiences, and His loving grace that he had blessed me, I gave it my best last shot.  Watching the “Bird of Death” coming at me, God allowed to maneuver away.  I thought, “If you want my line, I’ll take the ditch.”   As I went to the ditch the teenager flying the death bird decided he wanted the ditch.  I thought, “I’ll give you the ditch and I’ll take the lane.”  Those driving the three adjacent vehicles to my left and the bird headed to the right side of me was about merge.

For an instant, I thought I avoided a head-on collision, then there was the sound of squalling tires, tearing metal, and busting glass.  Sounds like the word for a teenage love song, doesn’t it?  Then, I took the wildest slow-motion ride of my life.  My car turned almost 360 degrees.  God’s hand and Angels intervened.  We hit head on.  Since the teenager headed for the ditch and I for the lane we hit head on but at an angle.

There was an eerie silence as I came to a sudden stop.  The bird continued a short distance hitting a drainpipe in the ditch.  I couldn’t look up.  My body was numb from my neck down and could not breathe.  I knew pain would come.  I made my way out of the car and continued to be bent double. 

I put my hands on my legs above my knees and pushed myself up almost passing out.  I checked for blood in my eyes, from my nose, and from my mouth.  Finding none, I figured all bleeding was internal.  I looked at the car and the engine was between the front seats, the right front fender had replaced the door, and the front passenger door was where the rear door was.  My steering wheel was shapes like a large horseshoe.

I checked on the teenager.  He was on the hood of the Firebird.  He was missing some teeth, bleeding from his forehead and his hands.  His motor and transmission were between his seats.  He was not wearing his seatbelt.  He had borrowed the car and incidentally it was the third car he had totaled since getting his license.  He tried to leave the scene of the accident.  He did not a license or insurance.

When the Alabama State Trooper arrived, he asked where the body from the white care was, my vehicle.  I told him that he was talking to him, me.  He replied, “There’s no way you got out of that car.  Were you wearing a seatbelt?”   I pulled up my shirt and showed him the red streak that was turning blue, green, and back, running from my right side across my stomach to my left shoulder.  The trooper saw the road covered with transmission fluid and thought it was blood.  He estimated that the force of the wreck was 135 miles per hour.  Later that morning, around ten am, the emergency room doctor me that I survived a Delta force of 135 miles per hour and that my heart tried to come through my rib cage.  He said that two things saved me that morning.  One being a big man and two, God was not through with me.

God allowed me to live.  I had faith that regardless of the outcome, God could use me.  He was not finished with me.  He helped me to see that I needed to live each day as though it is my last day and to finish well.  It was not what I did walking from impending danger.  It was God’s love.  The wreck was almost thirty-four years ago.

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.  (II Timothy 4:6-8 KJV)