How Many Miracles Can You Spot?

Let me just jump ahead to something Sharon said to me that made a lot of sense. She said fear opens the door to more fear, and that what starts as only one fear - say of heights, becomes more and more and more.

I never used to be afraid of anything when I was younger. I remember climbing from my mom’s 3rd floor balcony down to the balcony below hers and from there to the concrete slab above the door to the building and then jumping down from that.
In my early 20’s I dated a man who was also fearless and together we did a lot of crazy things. I thought it was fun at the time, and it was, but there was this one incident that opened the door to fear - he pretended to push me off the top of this steep incline above the Grand River. If he hadn’t held onto my shoulders I would have fallen. I felt actual fear at this time - terror, really. But it was all in fun and no harm was actually meant, so I didn’t think anything of it.
Something else I just thought of while I am writing this: 4 car accidents I’ve been in. The 1st one was when I was a passenger and the driver pulled out to turn left and we got creamed by a really big pickup truck on the driver’s side. Crunch. The 2nd was when I was taking night classes at Mohawk College in Hamilton and I hit a patch of black ice and spun right around. I was trying to maneuver back around to face the right direction, and was sideways in the road when a car came along, hit the same patch of black ice, couldn’t stop, and slid right into me as I watched it all in (seemingly) slow motion. The 3rd was while I was driving school bus. I should have known better. Buses are big. But it was the last day of school and I was in a hurry to get home, so I tried turning right in a narrow lane with a car beside me to my left. As I turned, the back of the bus scraped all along the side of this car, and I didn’t even notice until they followed me down the road honking! The 4th accident was with the bus again. I was at a stop sign. I looked both ways - left, right, left again, and proceeded to make a right turn. As I did, this car came out of nowhere and I smashed into it! I mention all these accidents because almost all of my fears of safety revolve around driving situations. So excuse me for a minute while I bring each of these accidents before Jesus and ask Him to redeem them, forgiving the others and myself......

Okay. Now the cool part of being set free from all these fears. I have to paint a word picture of how I used to be: if I am a passenger in your car, I will try to sit behind you (the driver) so that I cannot see what is going on. If I am beside you (the driver), I will press my foot down on the imaginary brake; I will hold onto the door when we go around curves in the road; and I will gasp in fear if anything sudden or unexpected happens - like another car moving into our lane too quickly. Whether I am driving or not, I am very fearful of the concrete barriers that you find most commonly at construction areas, and I hate going around the curving roads to enter the highways. I am tense. My stomach hurts. My heart pounds in fear during much of the time spent as a passenger. When I do the driving, it is better (because I think I am in control), but I still get tense in heavy traffic and around those places where the lanes narrow and whenever I take the curves in the road too quickly.
So, the 6 of us are driving to South Carolina. That’s 14 hours of driving time, plus another 3 or 4 in breaks (pee breaks, gas breaks, food breaks). I want to drive, because that’s better than being a passenger, but I don’t really like to drive in the dark, or in unfamiliar territory, but I know I can’t drive the whole time. So I’m anxious about Barb and Amelia driving. Do they even know how to drive standard? Maybe they should take my car out and practice with it before the trip (this was one thought I had that I managed to keep to myself). When we first left Brantford, I drove (of course). Eventually, I had to let someone else take over - Barb. I was sort of okay with that because I’ve driven with her before and survived it! I was supposed to be in the back seat resting, but I spent the first 10 minutes or so giving her advice on how to drive my car. (And she was very gracious about it all). I eventually fell asleep, but it was more in self-defense than in trust. At our next stop, Barb was going to switch with Amelia, and whether it was her own wisdom or from God, Barb suggested that I go in the car with Sharon and Lawrence, and Debbie could go in my car for awhile. So I sat up front with Sharon while Lawrence snoozed in the back, and I only turned around to check on my car about 50 or 60 times! And as Sharon is driving, I’m clutching the door, and I’m pressing the imaginary brake, and I’m tense. Eventually she notices and asks me some questions about the root of all this fear. We get to Craig, the guy who pretended to throw me off the cliff (she thought it was hilarious that his name was Craig, as we were driving through the mountains at the time and the fear started at a cliff). So I forgave him and forgave myself and asked Jesus to redeem the whole situation. I cast out fear and left it by the side of the road. (I actually had a picture of me booting it out of the moving car and it tumbling down the verge beside the road! I really liked that image!)
Now I want to test this! Am I really free from these fears? “Sharon, catch up to that car ahead and get too close to it!” We don’t know what the others thought when all of a sudden, the lead car goes zooming away! Eventually, as situations presented themselves during the drive - curves in the road, with steep drop-offs; more traffic; etc - I realized that a very strange thing was happening. My brain was informing me that “you are too close to that car in front of you”, but my body was okay with it. No holding my breath. No tensing up. No upset stomach. It was weird, but definitely a good weird.
And then it was time for another break and another driver change. I was back in my vehicle, driving, and Amelia was up front beside me. She was able to give me a driving tip that I was actually surprised I didn’t know. It’s kind of hard to explain, but it has to do with where your eyes go as you drive through curves in the road. It made a huge difference in how smooth it was and how relaxed I felt. So I’m driving in the mountains. Steep drop-offs on one side and high, rocky cliffs on the other. And warning signs about falling rocks - get Lawrence to tell you his story about that!
And now the tunnel is coming up! Ahh! the dread tunnel. Through a mountain. Two lanes - I had a transport truck on my right and the walls of the tunnel very close on my left. It was okay. Not great. I wasn’t happy about it, but I was okay. When we saw daylight at the end of the tunnel, we were all whooping and hollering, in both cars!

God showed me in a vision the next morning what happened next. And to put it in further context, this area that we were driving in was identified as a stronghold of the enemy and it was, at that time, being contested for by a group of prayer warriors. And this was the geographical location where God had just given me great victory and freedom from fear!
So, as you exit this tunnel, there is a big sign welcoming you to Virginia. We’ve passed out of West Virginia and entered Virginia. God showed me that it was the exact moment when my front tires touched Virginia’s soil (representing the soiled virgin - under attack and sullied by the enemy) that my housing unit cracked.
A few miles further along, it broke in three pieces and my fan belt got all twisted up and wrapped around everything. The first thing I noticed was my engine warning light came on and the battery light. I couldn’t figure out why the battery light - the engine was running! But I shut off all extra power drains - the CD player, the headlights - and we radioed Lawrence that I had these warning lights on. We kept driving for a while and then I noticed that it was getting harder to steer. We radioed that I was losing my power steering. Just then, Lawrence pulled over at a rest stop and I followed him in. I had to back up with no power steering at all and move off to the side of this road.
We looked under the hood, saw the mess, and called CAA (which is AAA in the States). Thank God for Barb! Then we waited 2 or 3 hours for the tow truck. Somebody had the brilliant idea of calling the rental car agency right away (instead of waiting until the car was towed to wherever) and so, at 10 minutes to 6, we called Enterprise. “So sorry, no one here will help you. We close at 6 and are going home.” Okay, let’s try the other car rental place (Hertz). But it’s after 6 by now and no one answers.
Barb says, "let’s praise God". So I get out my guitar (I knew I brought it for a reason!) and we start singing. Be Glorified. I Exalt Thee. Jesus, Name Above All Names. Holy God.
And then Barb is talking to sweet young lady at Triple A, and she tells us she will find us a car. She does. She connects us with Barry, from Hertz, which is located at Mercer Airport - 10 minutes from the garage where they are taking my car. And Barry will meet us up there whenever we get there, because at this time, the tow truck still hadn’t come and we couldn’t even give him an ETA. Barb had a sense of God - looking to and fro across the earth for someone He could call on to help His kids!
Eventually the tow truck comes. And now we have another problem. There are 6 of us and the Echo (Sharon and Lawrence’s car) only holds 5 - and a very squished 5 at that! No one can ride with the tow truck driver. So he tells me to get in my car, lay the seat all the way flat (so the state police don’t see me - ‘cause you can’t do this in Virginia, but you can in West Virginia, and we are a few miles into Virginia!) He asks me if I like roller coaster rides and that gives me my first clue as to what I’m getting into. The car, with me in it, is hoisted up onto this flat-bed tow truck, jerking and swaying, and feeling not at all secure and off we go. Back through the tunnel. To Bluefield, WV. My car has been turned off for several hours by now and I’m cold. And this is a very strange way to travel. I wasn't afraid, but I really didn't like it, so I sang, and I praised God, and I shivered! I could really sense the prayers of the other 5, especially as I went back through that tunnel. Their prayers felt kind of like a cocoon or a warm wave. (God told me later that my friends were fearsome warriors and that He loved them!) But I was still freezing! Then I remembered Amelia’s story about almost freezing to death and how Jesus carried her several miles to a house where she could get help. So I asked the Holy Spirit to come and warm me up.

Getting the rental car was the only easy thing about this whole adventure (and it was more like a battle than something exciting), except for the roads. Snowy. Icy. And steep! Lawrence drove me and Barb up to this no-longer-in-service airport (while the other 3 waited at the pizza place across the road from the garage) and we found Barry! He gave us a Ford Escape for the same price as a compact, and he didn’t charge for adding Barb as an additional driver!
And now is where I tell you about another miracle. It kind of hides itself. But I still believe it was a gift from God. No one got frustrated. No one got upset or impatient or fleshy. We all were just filled with love for one another and peace from God.

So that’s pretty much the end of the story. We drove the rental car from WV, back through the tunnel (God told me it was confirmation of my victory over Fear, and His victory over me! and also represented rebirth again into His life, plus there were aspects of not going around my mountain 40 times, but through it!). We finally reached Morningstar in South Carolina around midnight? Twelve-thirty? Late, anyway. Very late. We checked in, reserved our seats for the conference (probably the only advantage to arriving so late!) and went to bed!
Of course, I was thinking/worrying about my car. What would I do? I knew it would be very difficult to get parts for - it’s an Isuzu Rodeo. Would this garage be able to fix my car? And would it be ready by Sunday? And how was I supposed to pick it up? They’re closed on Sunday. I didn’t want to drive all the way back to WV on Saturday to pick it up! What if it couldn’t be fixed? Then I’d have to take the rental car home (costing a small fortune) and come all the way back here another time to get my car.
All these thoughts are rolling around in my brain. I gave them to God. I said to God, I just can’t worry about all this - it’s too big for me. So You take it, Father! It’s not too big for You!
And the really cool thing is - He did! He took care of it all and I was able to have that faith that the entire car situation was in His hands.

And in case you need to know the very end of this story.... my car was repaired and we were able to pick it up Sunday on our way back through West Virginia. We all arrived home safely! Praise God and Amen!