No Control Over HOW GOD Answers Prayer

 We Have No Control over How God Answers Prayer

I was chatting with my son on April 7, 2010. I had been struggling with feeling the need of a “cash Infusion” to continue gathering answers to God’s question, “What Do You Think I See When I Look At You?” I wanted to ask him for a loan but just couldn’t get peace to ask him. We are not in the habit of asking our children for anything but their time.

As I left him I felt perplexed. Should I spend money to advertise the book to get more answers? Would I even earn any money with the book to pay him back? All I knew for sure was, “God told me to ask the question of as many people as I could find.” I also, knew we didn’t have any “extra” money lying around. I didn’t ask my husband because we have gotten ourselves back in debt after being debt free twice before. The unexpected seems to come out of nowhere. I’m sure everyone can relate to that. Very few are fortunate enough to be prepared for crisis when it strikes.

Well, I wasn’t prepared with what was about to happen. I was turning left onto a toll road and out of nowhere there was a car speeding towards me and I knew we were going to hit. I remember thinking I need to hit the gas and try to make it through the intersection and maybe the car will miss me. If I had stopped she would have hit me in the rear mid section of my Chrysler Touring Van.

That van was a blessing from God. We had no intentions of buying it. We didn’t want to go in debt. Gary had inherited it and needed to sell it. No one wanted to buy Barbara’s van. She was greatly loved by the residents of Trailer city and her sudden death was difficult for the park as a whole. It would be a constant reminder of her. At the time my brother was sick and our vehicle wasn’t the best for taking him where he needed to go and he was not doing very well.

Six months after Barbara’s death, Gary still had the van. I felt God urging me to talk with Gary to see if we could afford to buy it. Long story short Gary gave us a very good price. Navy Federal gave us a very good interest rate and we were the proud owners of this great 2006 van.

I remember thinking, “I made it” and then I heard and felt the impact of the crash. “No, I didn’t make it.” My next thought was feeling gentle puffs of paper hitting my head and thinking, “What is that? I guess this is what happens in an accident?”

I had been driving 50 years and never had an accident and only 1 ticket for speeding (in a 25 mph zone).

My next thought was how comfortable I felt. God was with me.

Then I realized my seatbelt was tight. I struggled to get it undone. It wasn’t easy. I still had no idea the car has spun around and was laying on the driver side. I got the seat belt open. With hindsight I now know I was then lying against the driver door. I felt no pain. But I was very confused. I knew the engine was running but I couldn’t get the key to turn off the engine.

People came running. So many people! They were yelling are you alright? I assured them I was fine. Then someone said put the car in Park then you can turn off the engine. I remember thinking “DUH Lynne”. I got the car turned off and turned off my Sirius Radio that was blaring 1950’s tunes. I heard someone say my legs were trapped and someone was yelling call 911. I heard a voice say, “I will”. Then someone said, it’s already been called in. I assured the people my legs were not trapped and that nothing hurt but I was confused. I found my purse.

Next thing I remember was thinking I had to call Bob and tell him I was ok. Everyone was telling me I had to get out of the car. The people told me to open the door. I was thinking, I have the device in here to break the window to get out that Bob had picked up for me incase I ever needed it. But I couldn’t find the door. I was trying to open the windshield! I was completely disoriented. So I said, give me a minute I’m confused. They told me to stand up because the door was at the top of the car. In the meantime I got hold of my cell phone with the only thought in my mind being, “I have to call Bob and tell him I’m ok.” I unlocked the door and this great band of people opened it. They said, “Climb out.” By then I had pressed the #2 and the phone was ringing. They convinced me getting out of the car was more important than calling my husband. So I handed the phone to one of them and asked him to tell my husband I was ok. He handed the phone to someone else.

I could hear sirens in the distance as I turned and asked God to show me how to climb out the top of the car. All of a sudden it was very clear the steps I needed to take to climb out. Then I looked down at all these people there to help me. I laughed and said, “I can’t jump that far, you’re gonna have to catch me.” I felt like I gently floated onto a soft pillow. It was a very smooth landing.

I really don’t remember much after that except the fire department pulled up, police were directing traffic and everyone was so nice. The emergency vehicles kept coming and I was so embarrassed. The people that hit me were all fine. No one was transported. The EMT’s checked me out and except for elevated blood pressure I was fine. One stayed with me and asked me what day it was. I said, “April 7, 1920”. Then laughed realizing my mistake and said 2010. He kept asking me over and over if I was wearing my seat belt. I assured him over and over that I was. I also said later that, I wasn’t on my cell phone either.

Yes, my head was confused. My husband was on the phone and he was confused and of course, upset, DUH!

The EMT’s wanted to know if I wanted to be transported and checked out. I saw my car laying there on its side and a whole bunch of “stuff” lying on the road. I couldn’t make a decision. So I said no, to the ambulance. My husband insisted on coming to the scene of the accident and asked me over and over where it was. I guess both our brains were in shock.

The Sheriff’s Department was directing traffic while waiting for FHP to arrive to handle the accident. My car was on its side. Then I noticed the rear, drivers side wheel was completely broken off the axel and hanging by a wire! The police and fire were saying the impact was hard to have spun me around and up on my side and do that kind of damage. I had to agree, I wasn’t expecting anything more than a fender bender.

Once the police, fire and EMT’s were on the scene the people dissipated. The last to leave was a gentleman that leaned in to shake my hand and said, “______ was with you.” And smiled a big smile. I have trouble hearing when a lot of noise is around and I’m not sure what the first word was but I believe it is a popular Spanish phrase for God or Jesus. That is the impression I had of what was being said to me. Yes, my friend. He sure was with me!

A police officer offered me a seat in his air conditioned cruiser. I sat for a few minutes then I thought, “I’m thirsty, I wish I had some water to drink. Sure, like you’re going to ask the police, ‘Do you have some water?’ Like they carry water for just such occasions!!” Then my mind thought, “Gotta get pictures, Bob‘s going to be upset if you don’t get pictures.” So I got out and took pictures with my phone. How handy to have a camera in your phone. That’s when I noticed how badly banged up the van was. There was fluid of some sort on the ground. All the windows on the driver side were in little pieces. Some of which were in my arm. (The EMT’s had wrapped a bandage around it earlier].

I then called my son that I had just left. He said, “Long time no talk!” My reply was, “A lot has happened since we talked…….” He called his sister in California for me. I was way to stressed to talk but felt I needed to call our other daughter than lives close to us and let her know.

Bob arrived and I was all worried about where he was going to park. [Once an A type personality, always an A type personality!”] The van was still on its side waiting for FHP. Someone had said to me the first thing I needed to do was call our insurance company. So I did. Whew, it was a good thing, they saved us money by having the car towed directly to their repair shop instead of it going to “impound” as usual – then having to pay to get it towed to the shop. I was too confused to deal with the insurance companies questions for very long and Bob took over. What a blessing to have someone there to help you at such times.

When FHP arrived the poor guy was all alone to work the whole scene. The Sheriff’s Dept stayed and directed traffic. A tow truck had been called, they wouldn’t let me call our friend that we always use.

By now, I’m sitting in my husband’s van just wanting to go home. All of a sudden I see someone that was working the scene coming with a bottle of water!! Praise God, no matter how small and seemingly unimportant your request He knows and answers it! Bob got a bottle also.

Yes, I was ticketed for the accident. The lady that hit me, although I could not see her due to traffic, had a green light. Since I was turning left and went across her path I was ticketed. I was more than half way through the intersection when I saw her. Thank God I saw her. The consequences could have been much worse for both of us if I hadn’t gunned it trying to get out of her way. She ended up clipping the rear tire.

All in all, everyone was very nice. I don’t think the lady that hit me spoke English; she never said anything to me. When I spoke with her all she said was, “ok”. What she said ok to was actually not ok. We had found something lying on the side of the road. I thought it was from her car and told her it was there. It turned out it was from the back of our van. LOL There was someone with her that spoke English and was very kind.

The Tow truck driver arrived and had quite a hard time righting the van and readying it for towing. LOL, I had just filled the van up with gas to the tune of over $40! I wished I had a siphon at the time… $40 is $40! We had also just had a new engine installed.

I won’t bother to go into all the confusion of cleaning up the scene. [Bob arrived with 2 large empty containers to put all the “stuff” in. Yes, he was a boy scout! Fortunately he has a van also. Meeting the Tow truck driver at the repair place went miraculously well. The person that met us was on his way out the gate when we arrived! Had we been a minute or 2 later we would have missed him!

Oh, no, this isn’t the end of the story! LOL

Now, this accident seems pretty bad, right? Why would God allow this to happen, right? Well, funny you should ask. We have some friends that have been praying for new tires for their car. Everyone said they thought our van was totaled. When we finally got word that it was officially totaled our friend had 2 good tires. The other 2 were not recoverable. That was prayer # 1 answered.

After being told the car was probably totaled I felt I was to start finding another vehicle. For some reason, which I’m not even sure of even now while writing this, I started looking at energy efficient cars. I did my homework and here again, for some unknown reason was thinking of getting a Toyota Prius. Way out of our price range. BUT, it just so happens I had read the day before that Navy Federal was offering their customers a special low interest rate on a new or used car.

I found a car online in the Central Florida area and sent an email. I got a call back from a man that LOVES the Lord and felt me out to see if I was a believer or not. I never saw a car sales man that didn’t push to get you to buy. Instead we talked about the Lord more than the car. He told me what was available and for what price and said, “If God wants you to have this car it will still be here when you get the ok for the loan and news the van is totaled”. Now it took longer than usual to get the word on the van being totaled. It was close and came down to the availability of parts needed to make the repair and their cost.

We bought the car for only $166 dollars more than we wanted to spend. After much going back and forth with the “closer”. We were offered the same interest rate from the dealership and got the bumper to bumper insurance to go with it. God provided all this for what we had predetermined in our minds we were willing to pay per month. THANK YOU JESUS!

When the check comes in for the replacement of the car we will be debt free again except for the car payment. That we will work on by paying extra towards the principle each month and hopefully be out of debt again before we know it.

Oh, yes, about the money I wanted to borrow from out son? We have rebates coming from the bumper to bumper insurance we had on the van and for Sales Tax Reimbursement! We now have more than I was going to ask my son for and a more to set aside for those unexpected expenses.

So prayer # 2: God has blessed us with a bright blue 2008, slightly used (28,900 miles, one owner) with pristine interior, Toyota Prius! Above and beyond what we every would have bought on our own. I kept asking Bob, are you sure this is what we should buy.

Prayer # 3: I don’t need the money I was hoping to borrow from our son to continue the gathering of answers for the book.

Prayer # 4: We are out of debt except for the automobile which is a fraction of what most people pay for their home each month. Our home is paid for.

Prayer # 5: I love driving this car!!! I love computers and this is a computer on wheels!!

Prayer # 6: I have always loved riding or driving. It’s in my bones, and healing to my mind when I am stressed.

Prayer # 7: Only God knows how many people saw Him when the helped me at the accident. I remember vaguely praising God. Just our testimony of this accident has people absolutely amazed as they look at the pictures of the wreck.

People say, you were lucky or someone was with you. Believers know God was with me. I know God was with me. I felt like I was in a cocoon. There was no pain!! Absolutely no pain. No injuries. Well, I went to a regular adjustment for my back and x-rays showed my back and neck are messed up more because of the accident. They don’t hurt!! I hurt more from the adjustments to get my spine aligned than I did from the accident.

I say, God is good! God is GREAT!! After the accident happened I said. God’s been handed Lemons, I was excited to see the great lemonade that is going to come from it. Today we are drinking and greatly enjoying that lemonade.

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