Links in the Chain... How I found the Lord 28 years ago.

The car was heading towards us at lightning speed and it seemed as though my strange premonition was coming true. Everything seemed to slow down. I turned to see the driver. His arms were straight, pushing hard against the steering wheel, forcing his body back against the chair. His expression of fierce determination began to shatter into an awkward grimace as the horrifying reality of the situation turned into naked fear. An impact was imminent. His eyes squinted as they looked ahead. His chin turned to his shoulder, bracing itself for the inevitable.

It was an overtaking manoeuvre gone wrong. Usually, only one car will merge out into the opposing lane to overtake a slower car. This time, two cars crossed the line simultaneously. I remember the ominous feeling of dread as we followed the car in front of us. He seemed to be taking forever to get past the slower car. “Why is this guy taking so long to overtake?” I screamed. Too late. He pulled back in front of the car he just overtook, leaving us on the wrong side of the road heading straight for another car at high speed. We had nowhere to go. Cars on our left and gravel on our right.

“This is it” I thought. “This is it”.

And then… nothing.

There was no sound, no tyres screeching. Something miraculous had happened. It seemed as though we actually went “through” the other car. What happened? We missed it? Somehow, two cars heading towards each other at high speeds on a single lane managed to NOT collide.

We stopped our car and trailer. It was fully loaded with music gear for a country tour the band had just done. Not a scratch on it. We looked over and could see the other car had stopped too. We walked over to see if they were OK. It was a long distance. I felt terrible as I approached the car because I didn’t know how they would react but what happened next would change my life.

“Praise the Lord, PRAISE THE LORD” the lady cried as she emerged from the car. She was waving her arms in the air excitedly. “Praise the LORD”. We were all laughing from relief but I found her words disturbing. I had never heard words like this before. Not like this. They were innocent enough, only words of thankfulness, but they confronted something within me and I did not like it.

“Oh no!” I thought. “God is real. God is actually real. What am I supposed to do now?”

The idea of “God” was not new to me. As a kid I went to Sunday School but I was never interested. I found it boring so I forgot about the idea completely. It was a silly idea anyway. I never thought about God and I never wanted to think about God.

“Aww man, why is this happening to me?”

There was a deeper meaning to this unbelievable escape and I knew it. My mind was racing as I began trying to piece together the puzzle of what had happened the night before.

The previous evening had been fun. I was a fill-in keyboard player for a cover band and after a night of music and laughs I went to the hotel room and fell into a deep sleep. Life was good. Suddenly I was awoken after having an extreme nightmare. “What? What was that?” I thought. Shadows of the disturbing dream reflected off my consciousness, as the image of the nightmare replayed itself over and over. I had had a premonition. ”Far out! I don’t believe in stuff like this”. But I knew that this dream was different. Tomorrow we were going to have a head on collision.

The dream was extremely vivid and I was shaken by it. I looked over and saw a Gideons Bible. After reading a few pages I said, “God, if you are real, please get us home safely”.  It was a strange thing, but I could not deny the reality. I had actually had a premonition, read the bible and also said a prayer. No one else knew about it. Only me.  Only me and… God.

The following weeks after the “near accident” were intense as I battled the idea of the reality of God and what it meant for me. I went to see an authority on the subject. My Grandma.  She gave me a book by Barry Goode and said “He will be visiting us at the Salvos on Sunday. Why don’t you come along to the meeting?” I read the book and decided to go with my Grandma to Church. By the end of the meeting I found myself at this little table thing out the front of the congregation called “The Mercy Seat”. I didn’t know what was happening but I was sobbing and confessing something called sin. I didn’t even really know what sin was. I just knew that God had saved me from a car accident, and apparently from something even worse, sin… and He was real. I needed to acknowledge His reality now.

Now I know we cannot always trust personal experiences as a basis to understand and grow with the Lord. We can easily deceive ourselves sometimes. We always need to refer to the revelation of his love as revealed through His Holy Word in the Bible. However, this experience seems to reinforce a few things to me. Firstly, God hears prayers. Secondly, older people are used by God in marvellous and powerful ways. Thirdly, spontaneous praise is powerful. Fourthly, a few words from a Bible left in a hotel room can be a pathway to faith.  Finally, everyone working together creates a ministry to embrace the lost. I am incredibly thankful to all those people who created those links in the chain for the Lord to work His miracle. He wants to save people. He wants to save you. 


Special thanks Julia Collings, Paula Vince and Rhonda Pooley from Christian Writers Downunder for their editing (and or willingness to help with editing) with this blog. :-)

This is the book by Barry Goode which helped me trust in the Lord - Too Tough For Tears. 

Brian Maunder is the author-illustrator of the 

children's picture book Polly's Little Kite.

Website: brianmaunder.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/PollysLittleKite

Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/book/show/20862325-polly-s-little-kite

Review: www.goodbookreviews.org.uk