Better Let Him Ride With Me

It was mid-afternoon, and Jean and I were on our way home from church, (or some other place long since forgotten.) She was driving our old green 1980 something Oldsmobile; a somewhat longer vehicle than one generally sees on the road today. We were traveling at 50 MPH, or greater, and as we neared an intersecting road on our right, which was marked with a stop sign, hardly stopping a small blue car pulled into our pathway.

We could plainly see a man and woman in the front of the car, and a little boy and girl in the back seat. Less than 50 feet separated the two vehicles, as Jean locked up the brakes. An accident seemed inevitable. As with so many traumatic events, time seemed to slow down for us. (Interestingly enough, I have read that this syndrome occurs because the brain is processing more information than usual in the same amount of time).

It was obvious that my wife had every intention of plowing headlong into the smaller car, (and no doubt, all the occupants of that vehicle would have been seriously injured or killed.) Though we were driving a much larger automobile, we also would not have been spared. We weren’t wearing our seatbelts.

Suddenly, I just KNEW what I had to do.

I reached over with my left hand, took the steering wheel from Jean, and began steering it in a direction that would take us around the rear of the small vehicle. Amazingly, we cleared the back bumper of the little car by a foot. Both my wife and I found ourselves leaning hard in the direction of the drivers window. (As a result of that event, I can relate to the G-forces the astronauts endure as they reach maximum acceleration).

But the ride was far from over. Our ungainly old car began a 180 degree slide. Suddenly, the back end was where the front end was just seconds before. Now we were sliding backwards. As the car lost momentum, we neared a wooden fence to our left which closely bordered a house. We finally slid to a stop in a grassy area, a few feet from the fence, very shaken, but not a scratch on either of us. 

As for the small blue car, it was nowhere to be found. As we had continued our surrealistic journey, we noticed it as it turned left into the opposite lanes of the four lane highway. However, we would have NEVER expected the driver to “keep on keeping on.” The decent thing to have done, the only thing to have done, would have been to stop and check on our fate. But that is not what happened.

However, just about this time another car pulled up to the stop sign from whence the former vehicle had come. Having seen the spectacle falling together around him, I have no doubt that he watched the proceedings with awe. The motorist asked if we were okay, and after we assured him we were, he drove away.

There is an old joke, Jerry Clower used to tell, in which a hillbilly preacher was known far and wide for his inexcusable speed on the highway. One day a friend was driving behind “Rev. Jones,” and as “Bubba” watched the good reverend navigate one mountain curve after another, he feared the preacher would sooner, rather than later find himself at the bottom of a cliff.

True to his expectation, the young man watched in horror as the minister sailed off the side of the mountain, and down the side of the steep incline; coming to rest upside down. Bubba slammed on brakes and came to a stop just above “the scene of the crime.” Running down the mountain the young mountain man was amazed to see the preacher crawl out his car window; just as the vehicle burst into flames.

As the good old boy ran down the mountain side, he screamed, “Preacher, Preacher, are you okay?”

To which the minister replied, “Well, yes, thank you, the Lord is riding with me!”

At this, Bubba smiled a toothless smile, and responded, “Well, ya better let Him ride with me before you kill ‘em!”

Well, I don’t know about killing Him, but after what my wife and I experienced, in what was nearly a fatal accident, can there be any doubt the Lord was ready to crawl out of our car, and find someone else to ride with?

 By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "Concepts, Teachings, Practicalities & Stories" Copyright 2005

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