#9 on my list, Help someone who can not help themselves (#2)

No one, except for God, knows what tomorrow holds. Let me also say that one of the things I like about living in a small town is the ability to feel safe when doing things like I did below. One thing I do know, from experience, is that generally people who live in big cities of more culturally diverse areas are a lot less willing to stick their neck out for people. If I lived back in CA or in another large city I'd probably be a lot less inclined to want to stop and aid my fellow man. However, that's my short coming, which I need to work on, and I do think that there is something to be said to just practicing good safety.

Yesterday was gorgeous! A very A-typical day for WA in January (for pictures go here). But without any cloud cover all of the moisture on the ground turns to ice/frost in the cold, and begins to accumulate on the roads. Which is not so bad during the day, but during the evening you can't see it. That being said, if I had known what was going to happen last night I would have saved #9 on my list for this event. However, I did not so all I can do is add to it and share what went on while I was on my way to a friends house to watch a movie.

I was leaving Kali's house and heading north. When I saw someone flagging a car down and thought that it had simply backed into a ditch while tying to make a 3 point turn. Ummm, no. What I had rolled up on was actually 3 teenagers (all 16, the driver had only had her license for 10 months) that had slipped on the icy road and rolled over (yes, it was a top heavy SUV). All of them were shook up and besides some cuts on their knuckles, from the broken glass, all were visibly OK. One said that her rib hurt, but the rest seemed to be fine. As I surveyed the scene, the driver was already on the phone with her parents, the owner of the home nearby was inside calling 911, and all 3 of them were freezing. What could I do? Well the corner of the road they were on is very dark. Except for the lights from the nearby houses, or a drivers headlights, there is no illumination for the road (this is a notoriously accident prone corner). So I opened up my sleeping bag (in my trunk from this summers HWY 20 project. See procrastination does pay off;)) and gave it to the kids to stay warm and stayed there with my hazard lights flashing so that way people would try and be careful as they were driving by. Even with that there were still people that wanted to be Mario Andriette turning around this corner and almost took us out (now that would have been even crazier).

I'm very thankful that for all of them being kids they were pretty calm and that none of them were screamers (from experience there's nothing worse than trying to calm down a screamer in something like this). Of course the paramedics came and all of them were taken to the hospital (just because you're OK on the outside doesn't mean that somethings not wrong inside). Since I didn't really see how it happened I wasn't required to give a statement to the Sheriff, but I did have to wait until the emergency vehicles left before I could leave.

As we were waiting for the paramedics to show up I took a look at the car and the roll bar on the passengers side was completely caved in and poking into the head rest. I looked at the kids and asked "Who was in the passenger seat?" One of the girls said "That was me." She said that as soon as she new the car was going to roll she covered her head and got into the fetal position, and that once the car came to a stop she looked up and there was the bar. Seriously people if she had not done that the bar could have gone straight through her skull and then I would have been dealing with a completely different situation (and most definitely a screamer).

So here's the thing. God was definitely keeping the passengers of that car safe. No, I don't know their spiritual status, but God doesn't show favoritism. If that were true, who would be able to be saved? Deuteronomy 10:18, says that God loves the stranger (read Deuteronomy 10:12-22 if you interested in how we should be treating the stranger, good message last night Pastor). Of course that means He cares about the spiritual needs of the stranger, but also their physical ones as well. Sometimes, I'd venture to say most often, a persons physical needs are the foremost in their minds, especially if they don't know the Lord, and if someone who does know Christ can meet them there is a open door to be a physical and visible testimony of how the Lord does love them. They may not react right away, and you may never get to see the results, but that's what the Lord does. Think about Matthew 15:32, this is when Jesus is getting ready to multiply the loaves and fishes. It states that he had compassion for their physical need. Love is a verb. An action that we are commanded to show to the lost. How much do you feel loved whenever your needs are ignored by those closest to you? I venture to say not much. So then, how much do we love the Lord if we're not willing to keep his commandments? Again, I venture to say not much. My idea, just think about that the next time you want to hurry up and pass by someone who needs help, or you become to involve in the business of your day for another person. People may not keep the tract you give them, and they may scoff at you when you try to share the Gospel outright, but they'll always remember an act of kindness that someone extends to them, whether they know what motivated it or not.