This past weekend was certainly an interesting experience for me as a person and as a Christian. I had signed up to attend the Chi Alpha Campus Ministries Fall Retreat that was held in Beckley, West Virginia Oct. 6-8 and woke up Friday morning like every other morning-wanting to go back to sleep (Hey, I like my sleep, dear readers!), avoid my Stats quiz and Media Performance exam and sleep on until I needed to get ready to visit the Chi Alpha house at 1107 Fairfax before we left on our trip.

But I did not go back to sleep. Instead, I got ready quickly to have plenty of time to arrive at my 10 o'clock Stats class for the quiz. I hopped in my car with suitcase and computer bag in tow (completely forgetting my cell phone charger and a jacket), pulled out of my driveway and down my street.

I did not get further than one mile out of my street onto the main road before my car began acting up. It jerked and shuddered. The lights turned on and off. Shortly thereafter, the brakes went out and I was stuck on the main road without brakes. I tried turning the car around to get back to my street and get a ride to campus but the car stopped in the middle of the other lane perpendicular to the flow of traffic. Yeah, scary.

To save time and space, I got a tow car to come by and pick the vehicle up. But while I was sitting there waiting and yelling frantically on the phone, a few things happened that helped renew some of my faith in humanity and strengthened my faith in God.

While I was sitting there trying to get the car out the position it was it, two women in their thirties or so (I'm not that good at guessing but I assumed late twenties was a just a tad bit too old) stopped and tried to help jump-start the car for me and to help slow the other vehicles down while the process was taking place. They likely had somewhere important to go to but decided to stop and help because it was the right thing to do.

The car woke up after the jump start but immediately died. That thing was not going anywhere. I thanked the nice women and said that they had done all they could, that I would get a tow and they could go on their way. I wished that there was something I could do for them in return for their help but there was not.

Between that time and the time the tow came, every car that drove by asked if they could help. They were of all races, ages, sexes, political parties (judging by the Bush/Allen/Kerry/Webb stickers on their bumpers) and whatever else major division one could think of. It was really reassuring that while our world is quickly losing its morals, deep down there is a heart that beats for what is right.

One of them told me that the spot my car had stopped on was the exact location that an accident had been an hour before. It was then I knew that there was a force that was trying to stop me from going to the Retreat and I knew exactly who it was. (I later found out that there were many others who had some form of force at work trying to bring them down and get them not the come to the Retreat.)

I got a ride from my neighbor who arrived shortly after the women had left. He called the police who came by a few minutes later, drove me to the auto repair shop we had the car taken to and even drove me all the way to campus.

The Retreat itself was incredible. Not only could you feel the Lord in every service we had but I think it touched everyone in a special way. This is my story.

Those who know me well or somewhat loosely know that I nearly died this past spring/summer because of a serious medical condition that we ended up finding just in time to be able to start reversing it with the proper blend of medication, diet and other stuff. It was physically and mentally racking beyond description. Numerous times I sat alone crying, praying that it would be taken from me as quick as possible. Those prayers were answered and I mostly recovered within a few months and was able to return to Radford University this semester. I had also had a severe case of dehydration in Fall of 2005 that nearly took my life. At one point, my sight was taken from me, I felt cold and all I could see was white. It was both exciting and terrifying. Thankfully we were close to the hospital so I was able to get there in time to help me from crossing over.

Friday evening the pastor who came to the Retreat to speak spoke of recent occurrence in his life where he nearly died. In short, he had ran out into a busy highway to grab a child who had ran out unknowing of its danger, saved the child but was hit by an oncoming truck. He flew through the air into a nearby ditch and was unconscious. Needless to say, when a person gets hit that way, you expect him (or her) to be dead. It's a simple matter of physics. Person, meet fast-moving truck.

But he survived the event and was conscious but in pain before the paramedics came. Pretty much every doctor he met in the following days/weeks/months would end up telling him that it was a miracle that he made it through alive and it was. The driver, who had told him that he never believed in God because he had never seen a miracle ended up turning to the Lord as a result of the event. It was a miraculous story.

I sat there thinking, "Lord, You know I believe in You and that I do not need to see anything to believe in You, but sometime I'd like to see a miracle like that."

And, what was perhaps the most unexpected response came: "You're alive aren't you? You were that close to death twice and I brought you back."

For a moment, I just sat there in shock. I cannot remember what Pastor Ron was saying because for the moment, I was not sitting in that room. It was like those moments in the movies where the camera spins around the room and everything except the person it is focused on is a blur, completely apart from the recognition.

"Wha...?"

It took the rest of the evening the Saturday morning service for it all to seep in and when it did, I broke down. It was the Saturday evening service and Ron was emotional in giving his message. To be honest, I don't remember what it was about because I was stuck there in a daze, absorbing his emotion and adding it to my own as I sat thinking about what the Lord had told me the night before.

Earlier in the week, I had been listening to the radio--99.1 to be exact--when Tim McGraw's "Live Like You Were Dying" came on. I normally never listen to country music unless it's the patriotic songs like the ones Toby Keith likes to sing but I sat through the whole song and the Lord told me to use it somehow.

I think I figured it out sometime during the weekend. Life is so fragile, dear readers. We live on this earth for a blink of an eye and after that, we are gone. There are plenty of people out there who are non-Christians who have never heard of Christ, have heard of Him but do not know Him for who He is or have decided to deny Him despite knowing who He is.

I've spoken with plenty of Christians who have told me that they are not strong enough to talk to non-Christians about Jesus because they are afraid of the response. They fear rejection, being mocked, being yelled at or ridiculed, being persecuted for their beliefs and losing friendships as a result. We cannot be weak in the face of the enemy, dear readers. We cannot allow Satan to put doubt in our hearts when it comes to evangelizing about Jesus to our fellow man.

Because those people could be dead tomorrow. In the blink of an eye, your roommate could be dead. One of your fellow workers at your job could die of a disease. One of your family members who fell away from the Lord could be involved in a head-to-head traffic accident. Reach out to those people before it is too late, dear readers. Do not waste an opportunity to try to save those out there who need saving.

Blink your eye right now. More than likely, somewhere in the world, someone just died. Now ask yourself: was that person saved?

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