Ever present help

After a quick shopping trip I was the first car stopped at a red light waiting to cross. I was on my way to pick up my children from pre-school. The light turned green, I hesitated and remember looking both ways before I headed into the intersection.

Next thing I know… I see a flash of yellow on my left and hear a huge

CRASH!

Then deafening silence.

My suburban is sliding down the busy road heading towards the next block’s corner.
All I could think was…

“I hurt. If I hit that curb I’m really going to hurt.”

I pushed my foot down as hard as I could on the brake pedal thinking that would stop the car faster. Little did I know that the wheels were buckled under the car and the floor under the pedals was crushed up to them.

As I saw the curb get closer and closer I prayed that the car would…
just. stop. sliding.

I could see the corner of the curb disappear under the front of my car… but, it never hit the curb.

“Thank you Lord.”

A bit stunned, I knew I needed to get help. I also knew that I was alone.
The semi-truck that hit me had stopped a block back after hitting me.
I hurt all over as I grabbed my cell phone to call 911.

“Please Hold while we transfer you to the emergency dispatcher.”

It was several minutes before I actually was transferred to a real person.

It seemed like an eternity before help came.

Years earlier a pastor was sharing a story of receiving a desperate phone call from his wife. His daughter had just ran through their sliding glass window and he needed to come home right away. He shared that as he was driving home all he wanted was to already be home… to already be there helping. Even though he was less than 5 miles away, it seemed like an eternity before he could be there.

There is none of this with our God.

Psalm 46:1
“God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.”

What a relief!

We don’t have to wait for our God to show up in trouble…

God is our refuge and strength, abundantly available for help in our tight places.

What does your tight place look like?
Is it joblessness?
Maybe a difficult relationship?
Perhaps it is just discouragement…
Whatever it is, let’s offer this ugly tight place to our God. He is already there in the middle of it with abundantly available help for us.

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This post is part of the 31 Day Challenge: My Ugly, His Beautiful. You can follow along here.

Care to join in on the writing challenge? The Nester is putting it on – you can learn more here.