You'll Be All Right

Dear Old Friend,

As anyone who has been involved in a vehicle accident will tell you, you’re skittish when you first start driving or even riding in a vehicle after the accident.  I experienced that this week and it reminded me of a funny story from my past.  

Many years ago, I had been broadsided when an elderly gentleman pulled out from a stop sign just as I passed by. While riding in the car with my husband for the first time since the accident, I found that I flinched every time we went past a side street where a vehicle was waiting to pull out, and then my accident would replay in my head.  I turned to my husband and said, “When I’m in a car now, I can’t stop thinking about wrecks.”  He turned to me with a confused expression and said, “Rex who?”  True story.

Anyway, in addition to being a bit jumpy in the car this week, I started to feel overwhelmed with the realization (again) of our inability to completely protect ourselves from harm.  Whenever my coworkers leave for home, there is always a chorus of “Be safe” and “Drive carefully”, as we all communicate our desire for the well-being of our friends.  I found myself thinking that it doesn’t matter how careful we are, bad things still happen.  

I was simply sitting at a stop light, with no time to get out of harm’s way.  People who eat right have still been known to get cancer or some other life threatening  or disabling disease.  People who exercise regularly have still been known to have heart attacks or strokes.  People who have been faithful employees for years are still let go.  Brilliant people whose insights have brought light to millions have gotten Alzheimer’s disease.  The illusion of having control over my life disappeared, and I began to feel fear and despair.

Of course, I was reminded immediately that, while it is completely true that my own efforts to protect myself are minimally effective at best, there is a God who is sovereign and has supreme authority and power over my life.  While there are some who think God is too busy and important to concern himself with the day to day events of our lives, Jesus said in Matthew 10:29 that not even one sparrow falls to the ground “apart from” God, and he assures us that we are worth more to God than a sparrow.  Jesus then says in verse 30 that God is so aware of and involved with us that he even knows how many hairs we have on our heads. 

I found great comfort in those words this week.  To me those verses say, God knows even more about me than I could ever know about myself; and, if he bothers to know and care about the number of my hairs, he surely knows and cares about the events of my day to day life.  Obviously, bad things will still happen to me in this world, because this world isn’t heaven; but, because God is in control, I’ll be all right.  As I heard Chuck Swindoll say last night, “Even if you die, you’ll be all right.” 

True story.

I’m praying for you and what’s going on in your life as well.  I thought you might need to have this reassurance, too.

Love always,

Bonnie