My life changed in an instant after some family fun a few years ago. God confirmed He had a plan and a purpose for me that would affect the church for years to come.
After a day on the slopes in Wisconsin, I headed back to Chicago with my 13-year-old son and his friend in tow. Ten minutes into our drive, life as we knew it changed in an instant.
Our GPS showed we were coming up on a merge ramp to the right. Little did I know that there was a single lane to merge into on this country road, and a semi was pulling into that very lane just before we arrived. Our little Nissan Versa T-boned the 18-wheeler, and as we went under the side of the semi’s trailer, the entire windshield and roof were sheared from the car.
The night before, I had held in my hand the most complete and sophisticated packet of Strategic Prayer Initiative (SPI) materials that had ever existed, and I thought, This envelope represents the last 14 years of my life. Because I suffered a concussion from the accident, police had to wait a couple of days to take my formal statement by phone while I lay in the Milwaukee Trauma Center. One of my older sons had gone to the junkyard to secure my briefcase and computer from what was now a roofless car. While there, he took pictures of the car that now only stood about waist high. When I talked with Officer Nickels, I told him that after looking at those pictures, I didn’t know how I could still be alive.
“We all debrief at these accident scenes, and everyone [police, medics and firefighters] agreed you could not have survived,” he replied. “So whatever you’re doing, keep doing it, because you survived for a reason.”
See spiprayer.org for the reason, and click here to listen to the second episode of the strategic prayer series on Charisma Connection.
