A Heart-Stopping Experience

by Lou Seckler

Let me tell you about my first experience driving into Mexico.

It was the summer of 1973, at the very beginning of my work with Herald of Truth. When we arrived in the town of Sabinas, about 100 miles south of Del Rio, Texas, we began looking around for the church of Christ. We saw the building, located on the other side of the railroad tracks.

As I was driving over the tracks, my car, which had a full load of passengers, got hung up on one of the rails and the engine died. When I looked to the left, a feeling of terror overtook me; a train was coming! "Quick!" I shouted, "Everybody out of the car!"

Suddenly, the thought of total loss hit me like a ton of bricks. On the way in that day, I hadn't purchased insurance at the border, because it was a Sunday morning, and the agency was closed. I thought all was lost when, out of the blue, two Mexican men showed up, lifting the front of my car, freeing it from the rails. The empty car coasted backwards as the train went by. Other than the huge scare (and one small dent in my car), we came out injury-free that day.

The lessons I have learned from that experience are powerful. First, turn your anxieties over to the Lord. Second, even in the worst of circumstances, when you are involved in Kingdom business, He will care about you.

When we read Jesus' sermon from the mountain inMatthew 6, we find the Lord's three admonitions against worrying. But we seldom take them to heart. Then again, we have studied the Sermon of the Mount so many times that it begins to resemble a textbook more than the words of God.

FromMatthew 6:32, we must conclude that worry and anxiety are problems of faith : "the pagans worry because they do not know God." Those who have faith in God should not worry! We must realize that worry and anxiety is disobedience to God's will. The same God who commands: "Do not kill" also urges us: "Do not worry."

As your faith grows, so does your trust in God. But it is only when you decide to bank on that trust that you start making inroads into spiritual growth. So, what should keep us from worrying and developing a peptic ulcer? Two things: God controls everything in the world and nothing that happens escapes God's control.

Since that first experience in Mexico, I buy insurance several weeks before crossing the border. I also check twice before crossing railroad tracks. But above all, I give my anxieties to God. Live carefree before God; He is most careful with you. (1 Peter 5:7 The Message)

Posted: 11/04/2003
URL: http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200311/20031104_heartstopping.html

(c) 2003 Lou Seckler.

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