Jesus took the wheel, pretty much!

Have you ever heard God speak audibly to you? I have heard Him many times activate His Word to me, through the Holy Spirit; I've heard Him in my dreams; and I've heard Him speak through my pastors or through womens' ministry teachers. But I have heard him audibly speak to me on just a handful of occasions. It's not like a voice outside my head, like in a conversation...this is like His voice inside my head.

The first time was a topic for another blog, another day. Let me tell you about the second time.

August 9, 1993. We'd left our San Diego home the evening before, driving two cars and accompanied by a friend, bound for a new life chapter in Colorado Springs where my husband had been promised a good job at an automotive dealership. Doug was 3 years old and Nick had turned 3 months old the previous day. He was colicky and I was exhausted.

After making it only as far as the state line in Nevada the night before due to a late start, we knew we had to make up a lot of travel time this day to make it to our hotel in Grand Junction, Colorado. We had driven all day. I am not good at driving for more than a few hours at a stretch even when well-rested; by 10pm I was foggy headed. We stopped at a coffee shop somewhere in eastern Utah for a late dinner and I fed and diapered Nick. We were headed into the home stretch; just a couple hours lay between us and Grand Junction. As we left the restaurant, it was raining.

I can't tell you exactly where we were. I remember the name Green River. I remember the sign that said "50 miles no services" shortly after we got back on the road and thinking, that's ok, our stomachs and gas tanks are full. Alan was driving in the lead, in his white Toyota pick up truck with no windshield wipers, Doug in the carseat chattering along, I'm sure. I was in the middle in our Toyota 4Runner, Nick in his carseat in the back. Our friend Chuck brought up the rear in his Ford Bronco.

However, soon the light rain became a thunderstorm. More than that. Suddenly it was pouring sheets of rain and lighting was flashing around us. Suddenly I realized there were no other cars on this stretch of highway. There was no shoulder to speak of before the drop off. Nowhere to pull over to let this heavy rain cell pass. Suddenly, I was terrified. What exactly did a flash flood look like? It was so dark--would water just start washing over the road?

No cell phones to communicate with my husband or our friend. No way to tell them I simply couldn't drive through this, that I felt so afraid. I could only concentrate on Alan's brake lights in front of me and Chuck's headlights behind...and I could barely see either because of the driving rain. I kept waiting for the cell to pass...this is just a heavy few minutes, right? Wrong. We found out later we were in the middle of an extremely heavy storm, so heavy it had caused problems all along that corridor of country and had even delayed the moving truck with all our stuff (it actually arrived after we did at our new home).

So, time goes on and with each moment I am more afraid, paralyzed but with no option but to keep driving b/c there was nowhere to stop even if I wanted to.

Then, I cannot explain this except to explain it: I felt Jesus come through the roof of the truck :-), into the passenger seat, and say to me, "Be still and know that I am God." Now, I didn't know that that was Psalm 46:10. I wasn't a born-again believer who knew her Word then. I went to Mass, but not Bible studies...I had not heard that verse ever before. Then, Jesus was very practical--He said, turn off the radio. I did. Instantly, peace. The rain didn't stop. No exit or rest stop appeared. But the fear just went away.

I'd like to say Jesus and I hung out, talked about my life, what needed changing about it and why He was best qualified to do it. Nope. I just knew He was there, and I just drove in peace. When we saw the exit for Grand Junction, the rain let up and just as I had felt Him enter the truck, I felt Him leave. It was ok. The danger was past.

Ok, I can hear you skeptics saying. It was a figment of my imagination. I was freakishly tired and spun out and just created this to pacify myself so I didn't fall apart. Well hear this: just last year (so, what, 18 years later) my mom and I were talking during her recovery from cancer surgery. We got on the subject of that night. She told me that that night, she had been pressed with an urgent sense to pray for me; that I was afraid, that wherever I was on the road (they knew our rough itinerary) it was raining and that I was in danger. She began to pray, and asked Jesus to please help me. After awhile she felt it was ok to stop praying. After all these years, to learn that the Holy Spirit had warned her of the danger and Jesus had answered her prayers so miraculously, gave me chills.

I didn't turn my life over to Jesus that night. It was two years later, after that move had failed and life had pressed in at every turn and my father was dying from cancer, that I finally found the relationship with Him for which I had so hungered. And the first time I read Psalm 46:10, you can bet I had a "oh yes I KNOW YOU ARE GOD!" moment. He spoke to me on that dark scary night, and I will tell it to anyone who wants to hear the story for the rest of my days.