What physically happened?
I got into my first car accident on Friday. Thankfully I am fine and no one was hurt. Here is what happened. I was driving on the 110N toward Pasadena. There is an entrance to the 5N that is a sharp turn off to the left. Right before the 5 entrance I see the car in front of me slam on his breaks. I slam on mine, but hit him, causing my airbag to deploy. I pull off to the right shoulder. A tow truck must have just been driving by and saw us. The tow truck driver came over to me and said that the guys wanted to meet at an IHOP off the next exit to exchange information. Since I am crying and shaking the tow truck driver offered to drive my car for me. Once at IHOP I find out that there was a car ahead of the one that I hit that first slammed on his breaks. So car #1 slammed on breaks, car #2 hit car 1, and I hit car 2. Car 1 took off and did not meet us at IHOP and we didn’t get down his license plate. We think that he was trying to merge at the last minute on the 5N freeway and didn’t make it and had to slam on his breaks. But car 2 was there and we exchanged information. We called CHP and filed a police report. I called my insurance to file a claim. My insurance was not tell me where to take my car so the tow truck driver was really helpful and took me to a place he suggested that I would get the best quote for how much my car is worth. I really had no other choice but to trust him because I didn't know where to go. While I was talking to my insurance he said he wanted to give his statement as well because he had talked to the driver of the first car before he took off. He was like, “I’m going to do what I can so that this doesn't come back as your fault.” He was so helpful in the midst of my tears and falling apart. The place where we took my car was really nice as well and got me a rental car. Really things seemed to be happening quickly and people were just guiding me from one step to the next. I just kept asking, “Will my insurance cover this?” They kept saying yes, so hopefully they are right.
I have a few air bag burns on my arm and I am little stiff today but really nothing too bad. I pray that no other pains surface in the days to come. The guy from Car 2 seemed to be fine and didn’t tell us that he was injured at all. We don’t know about the guy from car 1, because he took off. So praise the Lord no one was hurt. My car is not doing so well. It can drive, because tow truck guy drove it off the freeway. But because the air bag deployed he said that the damage may be more than the car is worth. We looked up my car on Kelly Blue Book and it’s only worth about $3,000, which is not really enough money to buy another car. So right now my insurance will cover a rental car. I won’t really know anything for sure until and adjuster looks at the car but things aren’t looking so good. Since I am only working part time at the moment there is not really any room in my budget for going out to dinner or a movie, let alone a car payment.
What spiritually happened?
After reflecting on the accident last night and today I realized a few things. When things like this happen to me my mind usually assumes God response to be 1) punishing me for something or 2) testing my faith. In this case my mind went to God is testing me. Recently I feel like I have done pretty well with trusting God with my finances and that he will provide for me even though I am only working part time. But I felt like the accident was God’s way of saying, “See how you do with this. Now you don’t have a car and don’t have money to get a new one. Are you still going to trust me?” But my view of God’s attitude in it felt very mean spirited. More what I felt like he was saying is, “See you really don’t trust me when times get really hard.” And then I feel a tremendous amount of guilt and shame.
The second thought I had about how God was with me is hard to describe. Basically God was “the man” in the situation who just took care of everything so that I didn’t have to. This is probably being really stereotypical and chauvinistic but I just love when men step up to take care of things, especially car things. Yes there were actual men in this situation who helped me, but really it was God who was “The Man.” As I prayed about where God was present I saw him stopping traffic so that I could pull my car over to the shoulder. I saw him flag down the tow truck driver. He opened my door and helped me sit in the passenger seat as I was shaking and tearful while the tow driver drove my car off the free way. He helped me through the steps of calling CHP and my insurance. He was the one who made all the arrangement to get my car to this auto place and get me a rental car. I was really taken care of every step of the way in this situation and none of it was by my own doing. My first response is always to call my mommy before the police or my insurance because my mommy knows how to do everything. (She really has an answer for everything. How do moms know everything? I just don’t understand, but that’s another blog post). Well my mom was at work and not answering right away so I had to rely on the kindness of strangers and the Lord to tell me what to do. Not that I was incapable of figuring out what to do after a car accident, but it was just really nice just be led through the process and have the Lord be “The Man” and take care of me. I hope that made a little bit of sense.
Amen, Megan! I'm glad you're okay. Yes, God was "the man" helping you out . . . I really like that image :) Thanks for this encouraging and thoughtful post.
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