As I mentioned in my previous post, it recently
occurred to me that I have been entirely too quiet regarding testifying about
the miracles that I experienced along the journey of recording Hope Beyond
Hope. When we testify about what God has done for us, it causes the faith of
others to increase. Sometimes just hearing or reading the real life stories of
what God has done for someone else, especially if it’s someone else that we
know personally, can give us the faith to believe for what we need or would
like to see happen in our own life.
As I write this, it’s as though I relive it -- sometimes right down to the very
emotions. So perhaps the one doing the testifying also somehow gets
strengthened in their own walk. Nevertheless, I believe that the reason that it
occurred to me that I’ve been entirely too quiet is because the Holy Spirit is
prompting me to testify about these things. That being said, if you haven’t
read part one yet, I highly encourage you to start there and then come back to
part two so that you can receive the full blessing of what God has for you.
It seemed that everyone around me was sick in one way or another – mostly upper
respiratory issues. Unfortunately, I was having my own struggle with a
persistent sinus issue that wouldn’t seem to go away. I didn’t worry too much
at first. The convention was still a few months away at the time that the issue
started. But when it got to be about three weeks away and over the counter meds
weren’t working, I started to get nervous. A sinus issue for a singer is like a
sprain for someone in sports. You just aren’t going to do as well because your
body won’t let you.
I’ve always been radically healthy all of my life, and so I tend to be very
stubborn about going to the doctor. In fact, I prefer to seek the Lord first
and go to the doctor as a last resort. So I asked my prayer warrior friends to
pray over me that God would heal me. No one even hesitated. We all believe that
the Lord can heal through prayer. While my healing wasn’t immediate, about a
week later, the sinus issue was gone and I remained radically healthy up to and
all the way through the convention. In fact, the problem never returned.
So when the morning to leave for Florida arrived, I was grateful that I had no
worries and everything seemed to be going reasonably smoothly. I was running a
bit behind regarding finishing up my packing and picking up the rental car, but
that was easily resolved with a phone call. Little did I know that running
behind is part of what God used for yet another miracle that He would do for me
along the journey of recording Hope Beyond Hope.
Snow flurries floated through the sky and smacked against my windshield. I
smiled. Thank you Lord that I will be
driving out of this and am going
somewhere warm!
By the time I got things squared away at the car rental place and had transferred
my luggage form one car to the other, the snowfall had gotten pretty heavy. And
as I drove along the interstate, it seemed to be getting worse. Nevertheless, I
was reasonably kicked back as I enjoyed one of the several audio books that I
had brought with me for the journey.
I had been driving for maybe a couple of hours when I began to notice that the
road was starting to get slippery even though the snow seemed to be tapering
off. I began to get nervous and slowed down a bit, asking the Lord for
protection and thanking Him with a renewed gratitude for the prayer warriors
that I knew were praying. I saw red tail lights up ahead and began to gently
apply the brakes. Then I started to slide.
Unable to remember if I had anti-lock brakes or not, I began to pump the brakes.
It seemed to get worse. My palms broke into a cold sweat. The car up ahead was
getting uncomfortably close. “Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!” I called out continuously, now
mashing the breaks as hard as I could. I still wasn’t stopping. People slammed
into one another in front of me. Metal banged and crunched together to my right
and left. I suddenly halted. Then I glanced in the rear view mirror just in
time to see someone slam into the person behind me. I closed my eyes and cried
out to Jesus some more, anticipating impact. Everything suddenly stopped. I opened my eyes. I was completely untouched
yet everyone around me had plowed into someone else.
“Oh my God! This is Psalm 91 in action if ever I saw it!” I exclaimed in tears.
I sat and cried for a minute both in an emotional response to the terror of the
moment and out of gratitude to God for His divine protection.
Slowly, those whose cars weren’t completely incapacitated moved them off to the
side of the road. Once I calmed down a little, I moved out of the way of others.
Though I was still pretty badly shaken from the experience, I was determined to
keep going. I weaved around those who couldn’t move their cars. Sirens wailed
in the distance. I couldn’t believe the number of people who were involved, and
called my husband, Gary, to tell him what God had just saved me from.
“I just read about that on the internet. You were in that?” His stunned voice
asked.
“By God’s grace, no! I was saved from it!”
“That was a 41 car pile-up! The snow storm system is a huge one that goes
through about three states. It’s so bad in so many places that the police are
telling people just to exchange information.”
It would have been nice if that was all there was to that portion of the
adventure, but it wasn’t. Traffic crawled along the interstate for hours. What
should have been a 15 hour drive, was expanded to a 24 hour one. I actually
ended up missing check-in and orientation, but there wasn’t anything going on
until the evening after that. Even so, the sunny sky and spring-like weather
that greeted me when I got there was certainly a welcome change to what I had
just finished traveling through.
To check out the Hope Beyond Hope album and sample some of the music, please visit:
http://elizabethdelaney.tmgartist.com/
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