The Accident

BOB AND I HAD PROMISED OUR FRIEND that we would attend her daughter’s college basketball game, and we enjoyed cheering on the team and seeing our friend. We had taken separate cars, so I ran a few errands after the game and then headed home, grateful that the traffic was not as heavy on Saturday.

In a hurry to get home, I was thankful for a green arrow as I exited off the interstate. The woman driving toward me was in a hurry too. But she was not familiar with the area and commented later that she had been looking for the entrance to the interstate. In her quest to find it, she failed to notice the red traffic light above her and slammed into the front of my car.

As my compact car limped across the road to an elementary school entrance, my first thought was to thank the Lord. It’s not because I had a superspiritual moment. Over many years, however, my brain has been programmed to thank the Lord first. I wasn’t “excited thankful” or happy to have been in the accident; I was thankful by faith. My natural reaction to challenging circumstances is frustration, but being thankful for circumstances, no matter what, is my spiritual programming. How could I be thankful when I was just in a car accident? I’ve had years of training with “In everything give thanks, for this is God’s will for [me] in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

Sometimes I get myself in trouble, but other times, like this incident, I have no control over what happens to me. Either way, I have control over my response. Over the years, my responses have probably been wrong more than they have been right, but this time, I quoted my verse immediately while I checked to see if I was bleeding.

Several years earlier, my sons had made certain that my first new car was ultrasafe. Their protective instinct paid off. My car was damaged, but I was okay—just rattled.

The other woman and I checked on each other to make sure we were not hurt. I waited a minute and then said calmly, “You just ran a red light.”

“What light?” she responded.

We had both called our husbands, and they showed up quickly. Her husband talked her into changing her story. He looked at me and stated abruptly, “It’s your fault. Even if you had a green light, you should look both ways before you turn!” What could I say to that? I decided to let the police officer handle it.

When he arrived, I started to tell him my side of the story, and he responded, “I don’t care!” You can guess how it went from there. Grateful for insurance, I knew there was nothing else Bob and I could do at the moment.

“It’s not fair” would have been my response in years past, but as my husband often reminded our family, “Life’s not fair!” From the time they were young, we attempted to pass on this bit of wisdom to our kids. I still remember when our four-year-old exclaimed to his toddler brother, who had just skinned his knee trying to keep up, “Life is not fair!” He got the “not fair” part, but we still needed to work on compassion.

So many things happen in life that seem unfair, both on a small and large scale. The Lord has taught me from experience and from His Word that life is not fair, but He can be trusted. Nearly three thousand years ago, King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, wrote a book contrasting how unfair our lives can seem at times with the fact that we have an all-wise God, who will one day right every wrong. Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 8:14, “In this life, good people are often treated as though they were wicked, and wicked people are often treated as though they were good. This is so meaningless!”(NLT). My translation would be, “This is so unfair!” Years before King Solomon, Moses wrote, “[The Lord] is the Rock; his deeds are perfect. Everything he does is just and fair. He is a faithful God who does no wrong; how just and upright he is!” (Deuteronomy 32:4, NLT).

When “accidents” happen over the course of our lives and their outcomes seem unfair, how should we respond? Remember that God can use accidents and other hard circumstances to refine us and prepare us for His purposes and plans. And because we can trust Him to work out every circumstance for good, our response should be one of trust and thanksgiving.

REFLECTION

How do you respond when you feel that something is unfair? Think of an applicable verse you could program into your mind that would help you react with trust and thanksgiving rather than anger and frustration. Write out this verse and place it where you will see it every day.