I frequently travel on a two-lane highway that is often used by wannabe racecar drivers and reckless drivers. The racecar drivers zoom around the reckless drivers who are eating footlong hotdogs or brushing their teeth because they just ate a footlong hotdog. While driving among them, a surreal nightmare moment left me awestruck.
The summer day couldn’t have been more beautiful. The cumulus clouds floating across the blue sky couldn’t have been more appealing. The road conditions on the state route couldn’t have been better. This day, like any other day, I’d asked God to bless my family with a ring of angels to protect us from harm.
The stretch of road I use is flat and sometimes curves where I hope no one is illegally passing. The giant oak, maple, and pine trees that line both sides of the state route limit visibility around these curves. Sometimes deer will saunter across the roadway, so I’m always on the lookout for them. When the line is double yellow and there’s no passing, the tailgaters either take advantage of my slipstream or try to hitch a ride in my trunk.
The speed limit is 55 miles per hour. Since state troopers frequently patrol the highway, most local drivers will roll along inconspicuously at sixty mph. This stretch of road has no shoulders, only bordering ditches and an occasional pull off area. It’s not unusual to have to coast around a cruiser with its lights flashing behind a traffic violator whose car is slanting with the pitch of the ditch.
While driving east on this road, I tuned in to a Christian music station. I checked traffic in front of me and behind me and set the cruise control on my 2010 Lexus to 60 mph. My husband and I recently purchased this vehicle to replace our gold 1999 Toyota Camry (we still own a white 1999 Toyota Camry). I had only driven the Lexus once before.
When I spotted crows on the side of the road feasting on a deer carcass, I inhaled and held my breath until I got past the maggoty stench wake. Then I glanced in my rearview mirror.
A Ford Ranger truck now followed behind me at a respectable distance. In my driver side mirror, I noticed a blue bubble-shaped compact car creeping in and out from behind the truck. Apparently, the bubble car driver wanted to pass it, but a line of cars streamed around a distant curve in the westbound lane.
“Don’t do it!” I warned as if the bubble car driver could hear me.
He tucked his compact car back behind the Ranger as several cars in the opposite lane zipped past. Then he again peeked in and out from behind the truck. More vehicles spiraled around the curve, now closer.
The driver of the compact car became impatient and pulled into the opposite lane to pass. The little car had a short shell-shocked body with a Honda logo on its narrow grille-an old Fit hatchback. “Son of a gun!” I shouted, “What an idiot!”
In Romans 12:14 we’re reminded to bless, and not curse, our persecutors. But in the heat of the moment, I didn’t think, oh, the poor guy must be late for brain surgery. Judgmental words just tumbled out of my mouth.
The space between my Lexus and the truck tailing me could have easily accommodated two stretch limos, a couple hot tubs, and a house. “Okay, get in there!” I ordered the Fit driver as his compact car overtook the Ranger.
Looking ahead, I saw a black full-sized pickup truck with a huge wall of shiny chrome grille closing in on the fun-sized car with a grille the girth of a smiley sticker. But the Honda Fit driver, a faceless male blotch, didn’t merge into the sprawling gap between the Ranger and my Lexus. To my horror, he accelerated full throttle!
“Oh my gosh, he’s insane!” I shouted, “He’s passing me, too!” I took the Lexus off cruise control and eased off the gas pedal.
The Fit’s engine strained as the driver kept the pedal to the floor and bulldozed forward. The oncoming truck, now recognizable as a Dodge Ram, had advanced within spitting distance of the compact car. Boxed in, I braced myself to be collateral damage in an inevitable crash because of a suicidal maniac with a Napoleon complex.
Then I turned my head to the left to glimpse the truck and the car nose to nose-and blinked.
The scene appeared to be in suspended animation. I observed the little blue bubble car next to me and the large black pickup truck on the other side of it. We were three vehicles abreast on a part of the two-lane highway with no shoulder-aligned on a plane as if in another dimension. Time seemed to stop. To pause.
Neither vehicle slowed down. I didn’t see the Ram truck swerve out of its lane. I didn’t hear the squealing of tires or explosion of metal. I didn’t smell burning rubber or spilled fuel. We were just suddenly three vehicles abreast.
And then we weren’t. The man in the pickup truck continued traveling west as if out for a Sunday drive, and the crackbrain in the compact car continued speeding east as if racing in the Daytona 500.
The crackbrain, alive through no fault of his own, tailgated the next eastbound group of cars, peeked around each one, zoomed, tucked, peeked, and passed again and again. As soon as possible, I turned onto a quiet country road to avoid encountering a trail of destruction. I inhaled another deep breath, this time to calm my nerves.
While thumping over patched potholes, I shouted through my open side window to any cow within earshot. “What just happened? How the heck did that truck driver duck around that chicken playing moron? I need an armored battle tank to drive on that highway!”
After using cow therapy to destress, I thanked God for my safety, for the safety of the other drivers, and for what felt like a stretch in the spacetime fabric that allowed the man behind the wheel of the Ram truck to use his remarkable reflexes to react before impact. Stunt drivers got nothing on that guy!
Legally, all drivers are obligated to avoid harming others. And, according to Romans 13:10, if you love others, you won’t hurt them. So, to love others is to obey the law. The Honda Fit daredevil broke man’s law and God’s law by driving like a demented demon-a Grim Reaper trying to harvest lives on the highway.
Every day we experience heavenly twists of fate whether or not we’re aware of them. But successfully sidestepping spine-chilling situations that warrant a changing of your drawers is beyond being lucky or fortunate. I don’t expect divine intervention in my life’s daily calamities, but I pray for it-especially when I’m the idiot!
As for this spiritual phenomenon-it boggles my mind. I can only rationalize the surreal glitch in the flow of time-when movement appeared frozen-as a God Pause.
The LORD is good to those who wait for him, a refuge on the day of distress, Taking care of those who look to him for protection,
Nahum 1:7, NAB
Because you have the LORD for your refuge and have made the Most High your stronghold, No evil shall befall you, no affliction come near your tent. For he commands his angels with regard to you, to guard you wherever you go.
Psalm 91:9-11, NAB
The astute see an evil and hide; the naïve continue on and pay the penalty.
Proverbs 27:12
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5 SECOND SMILES :) 
And then there’s the white-knuckle experience of following a car whose driver is obviously drunk. Ive had that experience a few times. It’s a good thing God is watching over us when we drive.
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Absolutely! If I drive and don’t pray for God’s protection, I feel vulnerable. I happened to be behind a guy in a sporty little car who was texting while passing a huge semi truck. His car kept drifting toward the underbelly of the truck. Somehow he managed to keep straightening out his car before the semi’s rear wheels flattened it even more.
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I can’t imagine what is so important that these drivers are willing to risk their lives. It would be one thing if they chose to act like daredevils when their destructive choices only affected them, but the people they have little regard for on the roads have families and loved ones.
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You’re spot on, Pete. What really terrifies me is when thoughtless drivers speed around our neighborhood (25mph) with disregard to pedestrians or children playing.
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Thank you for sharing this story, Nancy! I appreciated how you pulled over for some cow therapy and to calm down after such a rattling experience. I’m glad you were safe, and thank you for your message!
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You’re welcome, Ann. I’m always grateful for your insightful comments. Take care and drive defensively!
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WOW. I had to keep reminding myself to breathe while reading this. Then, I read it again. Amazing! I have experienced similar situations on the highway. where time seems to stand still and the impossible is somehow possible. It must be a God thing, in answer to your prayers.
Driving in traffic makes me nervous. I have witnessed and experienced too many accidents in my lifetime. I do a lot of praying and reciting of scripture, especially Psalm 23.
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What’s so frightening is that there are so many distracted drivers, including myself! I’ve drifted just changing the radio station. We definitely risk our lives and the lives of others whenever we drive. It’s a sobering thought that takes all the fun out of driving. That’s why prayer-and driving like everyone else is a lunatic-is so important. Psalm 23-so beautiful.
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Hi Nancy. What you said here is so true: prayer, and driving like everyone else is a lunatic, is very important. I, too, have drifted just from changing the radio station. I scared myself!
There is a weird glitch happening with your comments, that I have not seen in all my years on WordPress. When you posted your initial comment on my blog a couple of weeks ago, it did not show up in my notifications, the way that all other comments do. I found your comment when I clicked on ‘My Sites’ and then clicked on ‘Comments’. I do that every so often, just to see if any comments have gone into Spam, that really aren’t spam. In your case, your comment was not in Spam, it was in the Pending folder. I have never seen that happen before with a comment, without it also showing up in the notifications on my WordPress Reader page.
I approved your comment as soon as I found it, and then I came here to your blog and discovered so many delightful posts that you have written. I liked and commented on most of your posts. Now, here’s the other weird thing: I never received any notifications on my WordPress reader, about you liking, and replying, to the comments that I left here on your blog. Ordinarily, I would have assumed that you were ignoring my comments for whatever reason, and just let it go. But it occurred to me that maybe your likes and your replies weren’t being shown in my notifications, due to the glitch that caused your initial comment on my blog not to show up there. So, I came back here to your blog and clicked on several of your posts where I had left a comment, and sure enough, I found that you had liked my comments, and replied to several of them.
I replied to a couple of your replies to me, and then I had to get off the computer, because my husband and I were going somewhere. I kept intending to come back and explain to you about this weird glitch, of your comments and your likes not showing up in notifications. But life has been super busy these past several days, with 3 grandchildren visiting, and my stepdaughter having emergency surgery.
If you aren’t getting likes and replies to the comments you leave for other bloggers, this is probably why. Your posts are so good, you should have a lot more followers by now. My guess is that people think you are ignoring their comments, when you really aren’t, and that is keeping them from following you. I hope the WordPress customer service can help. I will bookmark this page and check back later to see if you have answered this comment.
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Oh my goodness! Your like showed up in my notifications.
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Yes, and I am now following you! I tried last week and my email address failed to go through.
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Thank you so much, Linda, for taking the time to express your concern about my Site. I’m currently reconstructing my Site before publishing my next blog. Hopefully, that will help resolve the comment issue. I’ll also contact WordPress Help and ask them to check into the glitch. I have received all of your comments and am very appreciative of your feedback. I’m sorry mine apparently took a couple detours! God bless you for your kindness beyond kindness.
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Both of your likes on my comments here, showed up in my Reader notification, but your replies to my comments did not.
I hope that WordPress customer service can help with this issue. If not, perhaps the Askimet people can. I’m not sure if I’m spelling that right. Askimet helped me a few years ago, when my comments suddenly started going straight into the Spam files on almost every blog I tried to comment on, including the blogs of long time friends. WordPress customer service could not help me. In searching for an answer, I found Askimet. As I understand it, they are the people in charge of sending spam messages to Spam files on WordPress blogs. So… maybe they could help with your comments not showing up in notification. I posted about Askimet, after they helped me. I will search my blog and get that info for you.
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Here’s the link that worked for the problem of my comments going to spam:
https://akismet.com/contact/
The morning after I sent them my request for help, they sent me a form via email for me to fill out. I did, and within just a few minutes they had solved the problem. I hope they can do the same for you, even though your problem isn’t about spam. Blessings!
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I contacted WordPress and the Help Center said that my settings were okay. He said you can contact WP Help to verify your set up with rhe correct notifications, too. But I’ll contact Askimet as well. Thank you!
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