I am a firm believer that there are no coincidences. I believe that things happen for a reason. I also believe that sometimes we never know what the reason may be... at least for a long time. Sometimes I think God just chooses to put us somewhere to be used, and we have to trust the He sees the big picture. I had one of those kinds of situations this weekend.
Saturday morning, I took Bryan to the church for a hike with the youth group. On my way home, I was the first to come upon a three car accident that had just happened (well, at least the first to stop). Honestly, I stopped because I saw a guy holding a little girl on the side of the road and crying. I rolled down the window and asked if everyone was okay. He said "Everyone in our car is, but I am not sure about him. He hasn't gotten out yet" and pointed to a truck that was nose down in a ditch and smoking horribly.
I parked the truck and got out to take a look. I couldn't get to the driver's door at all, since there was a deep trench underneath it. I went around to the passenger's side and had to crawl through the window to get to the guy. He was bleeding from the mouth profusely, and more importantly, he was not responding at all. No pulse. No breathing. No life. The man was dead.
I am not going to go into all the details of what happened. Suffice it to say that it was the most horrifying thing I have seen, and I was scared to death. I don't know how I remained calm at the time other than to say it was God. I did chest compressions for him as best I could with him sitting up (there was no way to move him at all until all the rescue squad got there because of the position of the truck). Once EMS got there, I was able to assist them and helped with the breathing via the ambu bag. In the end, we finally got him out and into the ambulance where they did CPR for about 20 minutes before taking him to the hospital. From there, he was transferred to UK hospital and is now in the trauma ICU in a coma.
Scripture says " For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, authorities and powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm" (Eph. 6:12) I feel that. Ever since Saturday, I have battled the "evil" that has spoken to me "you should have done more Holly. You should have breathed for him". I didn't breathe for him before EMS arrived. I admit that I was scared. I saw the blood, and I was scared. I know that's how I am trained; I have to use precaution. But then I hear "you should have had a barrier with you, then he would be okay". The truth is that we will never know if that man would be okay or not if I had breathed for him as soon as I got into his truck. Today in my prayer time, I just confessed to God that I wished I had been able to do more; I want that man to be able to walk out of that hospital and live an abundant life. That may never happen, I know.
All of these thoughts bring me to this conclusion: we have to live with an eternal perspective. I've said it here before, but never have I been more aware of it than now. We are not guaranteed another minute. Make the most of the here and now. Live with your heart focused on the prize of our forever Home with the Lord. Take in each moment. Love your family without hesitation. Love your neighbor as yourself. Live with purpose. I know I am.
