Rear-Ended

I got rear-ended yesterday morning.  A new experience for me – not one I want to repeat – but one I now share with many of you.

I was approaching a stoplight on Braddock Road, getting ready to turn left.  In a quick glance at the rear-view mirror I noticed that a car that should look this big (Ѿ) looked this big (Ѿ).  I didn’t have time to process it, I just remembered it later after a big WHUMP shocked the car.  A weird blur of chaos, then nothing. I sat for a few seconds, then got out to talk to “the perp.”

The young man who hit me was maybe in his early 20’s, running late to his college class.  “I .. I ... just didn’t see you.” He seemed so stunned and scared, and I was basically all right, so I said, “Have you ever been in an accident before?”

“No,” he murmured.  “Never.”

“Well," I said, "here’s how this works.” And I asked him for information, shared mine and so on til we were ready to go.  His car had a dent and some impact places; my trunk and bumper need work, and my neck is sore (have been to the doctor), but all in all we were fortunate.

So that’s one of those insights that comes vividly true when it happens to you.  Anything can occur anytime. We are fortunate.  Life is risky business. You just never know. No one gets out of this world alive, but we can be grateful for the days and blessings and near-misses we do get.

That means it takes a certain degree of courage just to live.  Paul Tillich once wrote a book called The Courage to Be, and I think the title alone makes enough of a point to me.

The moment of impact, while not great, was a flash of disorientation.  It was a split-second reintroduction to those forces bigger than I am, way out of my control, that lurk around us every day. It seems melodramatic to say it reminded me of death, but death often comes in just that way. And in that flash of WHUMP and what the --?!? I at least knew that would be the moment when God would be there – and was there – and will be there – even in my disorientation.

And I felt blessed that I could be of some help to this stunned, guilty young man. Let me be clear – I don’t have a long history of auto accidents!  But the experience of a few extra years can give one some perspective and serenity in the midst of a crisis. That experience and that calmness can be a gift to others in frightening times. Surviving a crisis brings us a unique wisdom that we can use later on to help others.

For those of you who spend a lot of time in your car, we pray traveling mercies on you. May God keep you safe and alert, that we can gather with gratitude each week.

Through many dangers, toils and snares, we have already come.

'Tis grace hath brought us safe thus far, and grace will lead us home.