Posted on 07/13/2021 4:00:57 AM PDT by Kaslin
We hear a lot about road rage these days as the complexities of life cause stress and anger that often result in deadly consequences. Recently, during a Bible study session at my home, a friend, whom I'll refer to as Gregg, told us about a road confrontation that occurred a few days earlier.
As he was making a left turn at an intersection near his home, Gregg noticed a car speeding up toward him as if to block his path. He safely made the turn but heard the screeching sound of brakes being applied. A glance at his rearview mirror indicated that the car was making a U-turn and heading toward him. He could see a clearly agitated young man waving his fist and screaming epithets as he approached.
Gregg stopped his car at the side of the road as the other driver pulled alongside, his head jutting out of the window as he continued a tirade of insults at the astonished object of his derision. He could see that the man was about 17 and behaving extremely irrationally, given the innocuous circumstances. Stunned by the sudden verbal assault, but recognizing that the man was evidently dealing with stress that had nothing to do with the current incident, Gregg tried reasoning with his emotional adversary in an effort to defuse the situation.
"What's the matter?" Gregg asked. "F--- you, old man" was the response. "Young man, what's wrong with you? Why are you so mad? Why do I deserve to be talked to like this?" Gregg replied, trying to grasp the reason for the unbridled anger. "You're a young man with your whole life ahead of you. Why are you so angry?" That only seemed to add to the hostility of his enraged antagonist.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
He saw a potentially dangerous situation and did not act/react to avoid a vehicle crash.
What?
This was a beautiful example of glorifying God!
Your response is confusing.....?
He saw a situation developing and did not take action lessen/eliminate the likelihood of a crash.
“ He saw a potentially dangerous situation and did not act/react to avoid a vehicle crash.”
How so?
“Point stands.
He saw a situation developing and did not take action lessen/eliminate the likelihood of a crash.”
The point does not stand. Can you not read?
“As he was making a left turn at an intersection near his home, Gregg noticed a car speeding up toward him as if to block his path.”
He saw the car after he started making the turn. If he stopped he would have been broadsided.
In Judaism, it is referred to as hashgacha pratit. Chabad has an excellent description of from a Jewish perspective: Divine providence implies a kind of two-way interplay between Creator and creation, whereby each one responds and interacts with the other. A form of the word first appears in Psalms: “From His dwelling place He oversees all the inhabitants of the earth.”1
The notion of divine providence is a key distinction between Jewish and pagan cosmologies. The pagan generally also believes in one supreme deity, however, that deity is considered too supreme and exalted to stoop down to supervision of this lowly world. Pagan philosophers such as Aristotle considered God’s wisdom to be engaged only in the ideal, atemporal worlds beyond our own. The narratives of the Torah and its declaration that the one supreme God is the God over all the forces of nature places it in direct confrontation with this way of thinking.
When I hear the term “God moves in mysterious ways, I think of this Jewish concept because I see so many things that appear to be terrible events (and are), but remember that I do not have the advantage of having God’s perspective, and cannot see beyond the immediate circumstances. Often, the end result becomes obvious with the passage of time. I think this is a great story of such Godly interaction, and “Gregg” had the mature faith to wait before he drew any conclusions other than to try to use the situation as a Godly opportunity.
Providence
40 years ago in college I worked for moving company part-time. They had me drive a big box truck downtown to move some office furniture, regardless if I had ever driven a truck that large!
At the end of the short job I had to turn onto a pedestrian mall crowded at lunch hour. It was a tight turn and I had to back up (people walking by, I was blocking them, nervous, and backed over a telephone box!).
A cop came and stopped me and went to look back at the box. I’m now REALLY nervous, a complete failure, everyone is looking at me, and I hear a tap on the door. I look down and this little old lady gets on her tippy toes and cranes her neck up.
“Jesus loves you.”
I can’t remember if I said anything back, but I thought to myself “Yes He does!”. It didn’t matter what the other people thought about this young idiot driver, etc.
The cop came back and said “The box will be okay - next time have your buddy get out to help you back up. I’ll help you get out of here.” He stopped the pedestrians long enough for me to make the turn and leave.
I have no idea if that little old lady was Divine Providence or not, but it is amazing what one little kind act can mean to somebody. And she probably doesn’t even know it.
(Note - I was 20 at the time. This “little old lady” might have been 50!).
There was no vehicle crash and he did exactly as God directed him to do.
Are you second guessing God?
Great story! Thanks for sharing it. Sometimes it takes years to see the footprints left in the sand. Some never see them. It is gratifying when God shows you the impact that those moments had in the big scheme of things. I once helped out a fellow worker with a very small kindness (I thought). I ran into him years later, and he had become a regional manager (of a whole area of the world) for one of the largest companies on earth, He thanked me for the kindness and told me that it had saved his whole life at the time. It had been a terrible period of his life and he surely would have gone under, but I was the life rope that got him through that time. I was astonished as I thought it was nothing to certainly brag about and that I was just doing a kindness that should have been done. He told me that he had relayed the story to dozens of his workers through time and that the story had inspired them as well. Who knew? God knew . That is how Providence works. Not only did that moment impact this fellow’s life, it impacted many others. Those are the ‘ripples’ in the water that God intends to create by those moments. Life is all about the choices we make!
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