Just as I was leaving the lunch truck and headed back to the jobsite, the road beneath me began to shake. It was an earthquake! I had experienced a few Southern California quakes before but never one that seemed to go on for so long and was so intense.
For a moment I forgot where I was but soon realized I had stopped dead in the middle of the street. Luckily traffic also had come to a standstill. For a moment the whole world was eerily quiet. It was like a slow-motion scene from a movie. As I looked above me the power lines were swaying as if a stiff wind was blowing, but it was calm. In that moment as the earth shook and the world swayed I thought I had a moment of clarity. What a fragile world we lived in. There must be a God that held it all together. For a split second, I was a believer!
Then as reality crashed back in, this fragile world exploded with noise. Dogs barking, car horns blaring. The sound of glass somewhere in the distance crashing to the ground. A hand reached out and grabbed me. I was dragged to the sidewalk. One of my crew had run into traffic to save me and now was shaking his head and swearing at me with nervous anger, “What’s wrong with you, man? You could have been run down!” I could only smile and pat him on the shoulder. I wasn’t about to tell him or anyone that I had a life defining moment in the middle of a North Hollywood street, not even myself.
As the shock wore off, so did the feeling that I had been shown something very real and full of truth. And by the end of the work day, it was almost forgotten. Almost but not quite. Years later another event would bring that feeling back again.
This time it was a completely different place, time and occurrence. I was now working out of Salt Lake City, Utah. We had a contract to supply and install the concrete reinforcing for the Green River, Wyoming water treatment plant. At the same time our company was involved in constructing the tower pads for the burgeoning cellular business. This new-fangled way of communicating had reached the wilds of Wyoming. So, for most of that summer I had split my time between the water treatment plant and living in a tent on a mountain side above Green River.
The night when God opened my eyes again, I was sitting outside my tent sharing a bottle of whiskey with one of my crew. Autumn was approaching and there was a touch of cold in the air. As we passed the bottle back and forth a meteor shower drew our attention. In the crisp mountain air, the sky was enormous and as the young man next to me questioned if I believed in God, I remembered the moment in the LA street years before. Again, it was fleeting, and I pushed the thought away not wanting to believe…. but just for a moment, seeing that big sky wonder, in my heart I knew.
Many more years and other incidences like these would come and go before I accepted Jesus as my Savior. The amazing thing is that God never stops trying, He loves us that much! When the two incidents happened that I have just written about, I was a hard-core alcoholic, drug user and some would say ‘God hater’. Yet He still found ways to open my eyes, if just for a moment. But they were moments I never forgot. When the Word of God finally started my transformation, I could now see these visions, if I can call them that, with a new startling reality.
In Los Angeles those many years ago, as the earth shook, Jesus’ warning of the last days could have been called to mind, “and there will be great earthquakes and in various places plagues and famines; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. (Luke 21:11) I didn’t know then but now every time I read that verse, I remember that moment of clarity in the middle of chaos. I have the assurance He is and will be with us even in these last days.
And I surely cannot spend a night staring at His unlimited creation without relating to Psalm nineteen, verse one: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.” In fact, last year when RuthAnn and I were in Wyoming I wrote a blog about that night years ago because it is now part of my love of His Word and how He has made it real!
Here is the amazing thing about this book that has been ridiculed and reviled, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12) God wants His Word to be real to us. And if you are like me and care to admit it, He has tried many times to give you those moments that will do just that. When you see it, it can and will change you, if you are willing. It has done so for me!
Blessings John
3/21/18
