Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Things Could’ve Changed Just Like That…

I was so eager to get off on time today at work. For several days now I have been working over, merely because of the fact that I’m OCD and don’t like to leave until everything is finish. Well, sometimes it’s just not possible and I have to learn to let it go and leave it for the next day. So that’s exactly what I was bound and determined to do this afternoon. I was going to leave right at the time I was supposed to get off. I was a little upset though, because I had already went 30 minutes over the time that I told myself I was going to leave by because traffic gets really bad in particular time frames. Then I saw it was pouring, I mean POURING down rain. As I grabbed my stuff and headed to the door… I caught myself turning around and walking back to my desk. What’s the point? I might as well stay and work a little more because rain in Atlanta means the traffic is going to be worse than normal. All I could think about was how I would have to sit in the traffic, watch my car’s temperature gauge run hot, then having to turn my heat on full blast to take away from the temperature rising and not being able to roll down my windows to release the heat from my car. I’d have to just sit there and swelter into a puddle. However, I had made a promise to myself that I would not stay late that day, because it was starting to become a routine. So I needed to draw myself a line. So I just decided to leave and prayed that I wouldn’t get stuck in the rain and sweat with the heat on in my car to keep my car from overheating.

So here’s where the story really begins. As I was exiting off the exit ramp to merge onto the interstate (the six lane interstate, mind you) something super scary happened. I almost crashed! Here’s what happened…it was raining so hard, it was hard to see. I had my wipers on as fast as they would go and I wasn’t driving no more than 30 miles an hour. Well, there was a car in front of me, and I saw it hydroplane on the water. When it did that, the car’s tires slung a waterfall of water up on my windshield and I couldn’t see ANYTHING but water. It was so much water, it overpowered my windshield wipers. To make it worse, it the midst of not being able to see, my car then started to hydroplane. It was like everything then went in slow motion. The water on my windshield seemed to become still in a freeze-framed photograph and I looked at my hands on the steering wheel and thought to myself, “ So this is what it feels like before you get in a major crash.” I just felt it coming. Because I was on an exit ramp, merging onto the six lane interstate and my car was hydroplaning and swerving to the left… I just knew that I was about to have cars crashing into me. To make it even worse, I knew they were going to hit my driver door, because that’s just the way the car had swerved.

But for a moment… it’s just as if time had frozen. Everything went so very slow and I even had time to think, “don’t tense up… you’re not suppose to tense up when you prepare to brace yourself for a car accident.” Then I heard it…. it’s like the radio had been mute the whole time, but then I heard it… as my life was flashing before my eyes… I heard Chris Tomlin singing “Amazing Grace” so softly, so slowly on the radio. Then Psalm 91:11 came to my mind, “For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” Then I closed my eyes…(yes while driving… at this point I had submitted to the crash.) I mean..it was probably for a split second, but it seemed like eternity. Then all of a sudden, when I opened my eyes.. the water on my windshield had gone away and I could see the road and tried to regain control of the car again. I had swerved on the exit ramp, but although I should have already been on the interstate, I had stayed on the exit ramp and pulled myself back into my lane. It was a true miracle. It was the Lord. It totally was…

Then I did what any mature young adult would do after such an intense experience… I called my Mama. I was shaking so bad and crying, I thought I would have to stop the car. I would of had to stop the car, but traffic had already done that for me. I had never been so thankful in my life to be stuck in Atlanta traffic. To make it more cooler? I sat in traffic for a long time too, and not once did my car run hot nor did I have to turn the heat on. THAT was God. I felt so lucky and blessed and protected. Thank the Lord I was safe, because it could have been really bad. Things could’ve changed in an instant…just like that. BAM. But... thankfully I had Amazing Grace...

Friday, June 25, 2010

Family Matters

I don’t know if many people know this or not, but for the last six months I have been welcomed to live in the home of a wonderful family…the King family. It’s so cool, because last summer it was such a God-ordained thing. I had applied for two internships for last summer… “CMT” and “gmc.” I really never expected to get either of the two internships. The cool thing? CMT called to accept me into their internship program in Nashville, but they had made a mistake. Instead of accepting me for the summer of 2009, they accepted me for the spring. The cool part comes in later, because after I was accepted to intern with CMT for the Spring, gmc called and accepted me for the summer. So… had CMT not accepted me for the spring, I wouldn't have been able to do both internships. God is so cool like that!

Anyway, I am getting off track with my story. So back to my internship with gmc. I didn’t have a place to stay in Atlanta and I couldn’t afford an apartment by myself for 3 months on an internships salary (which is $0.00.) So I reached out to some friends of mine, and they reached out to their friends. One sweet and precious family prayed about it, and decided to welcome me… a total stranger…into their home. So I stayed here for six weeks last year. Then I just felt the Lord calling me back to gmc after graduation, so I came back for a continuation of my internship. I reached out to the family again and once more they welcomed me back into their home. I was only going to stay here for six more weeks, but then gmc invited me to take a part on their team! At the time, I also had another job opportunity, so I began to pray over the two and I knew in my heart that I was to stay here in Atlanta. Which is funny, because-at the time- there wasn’t anything in Atlanta that appealed to me. It’s so neat how the Lord changes our heart.

So, after praying about it and hearing from the Lord, clear as a bell, I accepted the job with gmc and was invited to stay with the King family as long as I needed to.

Now that you have the back-story… here is the absolutely wonderful part about this family. They have a 14-year-old daughter, Olivia. Olivia is sick. She has been for several years. She is in complete need of a liver transplant, and up until now Mr. King was searching for employment all while being a student working on his second college degree. Having said that, it just brings tears to my eyes and makes me completely misty too know that this self-less family decided to take this random college student into their home and put a shelter over her head. God is completely amazing, because I have fallen completely in love with this family and feel as if I really am apart of their family. I just can’t get over the love of Jesus that they have shown to me by just allowing me to live with them. I’m now preparing to move, and they have made it clear to me that they don’t want me to go. I can’t think of many people that would honestly feel that way after having a stranger live with them… you’d figure they’d be ready for me to leave. But no… wow. Makes me cry to feel so extremely loved.



Anyway, sweet Olivia turned 14 today, and I’m sitting here listening to the ice cream maker going, smelling the corn cobs roasting on the grill, and watching everyone run around the house with complete joy. Friendship. Love. Dinner is almost ready and we’ll all sit down together, as Family, to eat and celebrate another year of Olivia’s life. Liv is getting ready to transplant sometime this summer, and I know God has great things planned for her life after this. She truly is my mini me and I can tell that she looks up to me. I love that, because at 14, I can still name each person that had an affect on my life. I’m glad that I am able to be apart of hers and this great family. Just watching what this sweet girl has gone through in her life, and how she still has so much “life” in her spirit, it’s totally inspiring. It’s amazing how someone so young can teach someone who is ten-year-older than her so much. It’s so cool how God works too, Olivia has always wanted a sibling… and I’ve always wanted a younger sister. It’s a winning situation. But… you always win with God. Yeah. Thank you, Jesus.