Purpose

Have you ever wondered why you are here? What is your purpose? I have wondered that alot since 1988. I was...well I am not going to tell you how old I was....just kidding...I was 19. I was home from college, I just started dating this really cute boy...you can guess who it was!

I had friends graduating from high school and joining me on the college bound road of life. I was headed one day to the Patriot Center for a friends high school graduation. I had spent the night with another friend and we were actually running on time for the graduation. I had borrowed her sister's dress...I didn't like any of mine, of course. I was feeling good and looking fine! My car was actually in the shop and my parents had these wonderful good samaratians for friends from church who lent us their car. Thank you Jerry and Lynn Belknap...It was old, no a/c, no radio but it ran. It was a brown volkswagen rabbit! So my friend and I were headed out the door, trying to leave before her younger sister could catch up with us and ride with us. If memory serves me correctly, she was annoying us. My friend's parents and sister would be coming to the graduation too.

So we headed out that beautiful June day. I don't remember much but the sun was out and it wasn't too hot. We got to the George Mason campus and we were wanting to get a good seat so I was going a little fast. We spotted a campus police officer in his car and I slowed down. It was then that we heard the LOUD crack. I put on the brakes and looked up. Just in time to see some leaves falling down on us.

When I woke up, the horn was blaring and I remember thinking "don't let the car roll, keep your foot on the brakes". As I look back, that is a little humorous due to the fact that I wasn't going to go anywhere. I didn't know that at the time. I tried to sit up because I realized that I was the one making the horn blare. I couldn't. My friend was next to me screaming. I grabbed her hand and told her I was ok. I couldn't see her. I was trapped. Something had me pinned between the roof of the car and the steering wheel. I was pinned looking out the driver side window. All I could see was leaves all around me. My nose started to bleed. I tried to move so that the blood would not get on my friend's sister's dress. Silly, I know but when you are in a crisis, it is weird how your brain works. I guess I was trying not to make the situation worse.

You see a rotted out oak tree, 9 ft. in circumference had fallen on us at just the moment we passed by. Weird huh? No one else was around us. Only one person heard and he came running. Bounding actually over the branches and limbs of the fallen tree. I think his name was Steve, a poli-sci major. He heard and came running. The paramedics came, the firemen came. They cut us out and took us by ambulance to the hospital. She gots lights and siren. I didn't...by the way, I was worse off than she was. She still got the lights and siren.

We were alright. We survived. My friend left the next day to go to Japan for the summer. All the paramedics and firemen said that we should not have survived. If anyone had been in the back seat they would have died instantly. The way the tree fell only the fork in the branches hit us and trapped us in the car. If the bulk of the trunk had...we would not be here.

From that day on, I wondered why I was spared. What did God want from me? Was I here to do something great? Would a lot of people know me and marvel at what I could do? I thought God has spared me so that I could be great and wonderful. Ha! I laugh now thinking at how naive I was to think that. I am spared because I asked God to be the Lord and Savior of my life. I gave my life to Him a long time ago. He uses me how He sees best. Most of the time, it is not what I pictured. God must smile while I try to figure out what His next move is. He probably sits there and shakes his head and thinks "be still girl, be still and trust me".

My purpose is to follow him. My purpose is to obey him. My purpose is to serve. As long as I am doing that, then I have my purpose. How I carry out my purpose may be different than you. We all have the same purpose. Follow, obey and serve. Don't wait for a tree to fall on you before you realize God wants you. He wants to have a real relationship with you. Shhh...listen..do you hear that?