The day I met death and lived, part 2

If you've not read part 1, go here.

I left off right as the tractor-trailer hit. It felt like eternity passed, but also like just a few seconds. Creepy, really.

When I opened my eyes, I was really just trying to process what had happened. My back windshield was gone. The front windshield was intact. Weird.

I looked in the rear-view, trying to look at myself. My hair was down. It had been in a ponytail. At that point, it was also about assessing myself and checking to see what was injured. My right hand had, apparently, gone through the back window with my head. It was cut open from between my ring and pinky fingers down to my wrist. I had no idea how bad it might be, but I was losing blood. My forehead met the steering wheel and they had a rumble - that wasn't pretty, either.

About that time, a man came over and opened my door. I remember that he reached in and turned off the engine. He told me what his name was. I don't remember what it was. He said that I could use his cell phone to call whoever I needed to. He helped me out of my truck. He introduced his wife, and told me that she was a paramedic in their hometown (they were on vacation). She took care of me until the local paramedics got to me.

The EMS people took me to one of the local hospitals. I stayed there until about midnight or so. I really don't remember. Morphine - it's great! Although, they didn't give it to me until I was ready to for a second set of X-rays at about 8-9 pm (I was there by 4:30). My nurse told me that she was proud of me - that I was hurt and I wasn't screaming for pain meds. To be honest, I'm not sure why I wasn't asking for some. God had some major heavenly pain meds He was distributing - that's all I can think of. Mainly because there was a med student in with the regular doctor who had one of my tendons in 2 forceps, yanking the tendon up out of my hand. I told him they weren't supposed to be on the outside of my body and that I'm sure it would like to be back in the nice, warm, snuggly place it came out of. Then, I noticed why there were 2 forceps. That tendon was cut. There was about 1/4 of it left in tact. So, I needed surgery.

I ended up needing to see the best hand surgeon in town. I got in with him on Wed. 2 days to get in with the best hand surgeon in town isn't bad. I was impressed. He did surgery Wed afternoon. It turns out the people in the ER left a piece of glass in my hand that he removed during surgery.
Later that week, I went to the police dept - they'd not taken my statement the night of the accident. There were so many cars involved (14 total) that by the time they got to me, I'd been given my first dose of morphine. The officer that came out to talk to me almost passed out when I told him which vehicle I was in. By their estimations, I should've been dead. They were probably right.

During my visit to the police dept, I saw the sketch of the accident. It really is amazing. The truck that hit me had pushed a Grand Marquis down the interstate sideways for over a mile. Then, he hit me. At 85 mph. I hit one car (while he was running over the bed of my S-10), spun out, hit another car (with the bed of my truck - he's running over the front of my truck), the pin under the back end of the trailer impaled the engine of my truck, I spun out again while nicking a 3rd car, and came to rest in the back end of the 4th car.

God's intervention that day showed me that there's nothing I can't rely on Him for. Since then, I've tried to do things on my own, again. Then I remember what He saved me from. Death, pain, torture, burning alive, and so many other things. And that's just in the spiritual! That's not what He saved me from that day in July.

God is good.

Can I get an "amen"?

The day I met death and lived.

I guess that would be it in a nutshell. (Warning: this might be a little long, but hang in there.)

The date: July 14, 2003
The time: 4:20 pm
Events:
It started back on July 6. I was helping direct VBS that year. We'd been going hard about 19 hours every day (5 hours of every day on the road) for 3 weeks straight. We only had a total of 6 weeks to do it all, anyway. I was tired. Really tired.

The job I worked allowed me to be by myself for most of the day. I could have day-long discussions with God. It was good. That week, He'd told me that some people were offended by some things I'd said that previous Sunday. I didn't quite realize that what I said would've offended anyone, but apparently it did.

The next Sunday (July 13th), I felt that to those people I'd offended publicly that I would apologize publicly. (Friends, that takes guts. It shows you what you're made of.)

The very next day, Satan (death) payed me a visit. He was mean. He was cruel. He killed 2 other people trying to kill me.

There had been several accidents on the interstate in the previous weeks. During one of those accidents, some diesel fuel was spilled onto the interstate. They waited a week to clean it up. Needless to say, there were 2 miles worth of vehicles on that stretch of road when I got to it.

The day was beautiful. Not too hot. Windows in my S-10 were rolled down and good music was on the radio. I was not going to let stopped traffic ruin my day, because I was on my way to church (with a cab full of boxes for crafts) to work on VBS stuff. God was good and I was blessed.

Anyway, since I'd been on the road everyday for the previous (almost) 3 years, I was used to the sounds that accompany the travel. The sound I heard on that day wasn't like any I'd ever heard before.

Out of nowhere, I saw a tractor-trailer in my rear-view. He was coming at me. He was coming fast. Much faster that regular interstate traffic would travel. This was not good. There was no time to get out of the truck. No time to pull over, or even anywhere to go. No time for anything. I cried out to God in that split second to help me. And then, the truck hit me. It felt like an eternity, but only a few seconds. God was in control now...

Stay tuned...