God’s Presence and Provision: A Faithful God in a Dangerous Situation

A flat tire far from home can leave you feeling helpless. And if the road is a major highway travelled by large semi-trailer trucks whizzing along at 75 mph, sitting on the shoulder of the road, less than 10 feet from death, can be terrifying. That is the situation we found ourselves in on Sunday, June 2 on our trip from our home in North Carolina to a summer cottage in Central New York.

But as we stood on the side of the road, we felt the presence of God and over the next two hours we saw His amazing provision for us.

This story begins back in North Carolina. The day before we left home to drive 800 miles to Central New York, I was loading the car for the trip. The next morning 2 of our grandsons had a piano recital. We were going to get on the road right after the recital and drive about 6 hours north, find a hotel, spend the night, and complete the trip the following day. As I was loading the car, I distinctly heard these words in my mind, “You should learn how to change the tire on your car”.

I know how to change a flat tire. I have changed flat tires, especially on SUVs, many times. It is not that. It is that this car has a strange spare tire. It is completely deflated under the mat in the back of the car. The car comes with a small electric air pump that you plug into an outlet in the back to the car to fill the tire. It sounds simple enough, but for some reason I never bothered to check out the system. 

So, the voice I heard told me to learn how to take off a flat tire, inflate, and put on the spare tire. Except I didn’t pay attention to the voice. “I won’t have a flat tire”, I thought.

We left home about 1:00 PM, reached the junction with Interstate 81 and began the long drive north. I-81 is a main artery for truck traffic from Knoxville, Tennessee to Watertown in Upstate New York near the Canadian border. It crosses the Blue Ridge Mountains and follows the Shenandoah valley in Virginia. It is a beautiful drive. But it is one of the deadliest highways in America. The speed limit is 70 mph in Virginia but most cars are driving 80 mph. The big semi rigs are generally doing the speed limit, but there are a lot of them! 

The first night we made it to Harrisonburg, Virginia and stayed in a hotel near the interstate. The next morning as I was loading the car with our overnight bags, I heard the ‘voice’ again. It said, “What do you think about the left rear tire? Does it look properly inflated? You should check it out”. I was approaching the car from the left side. I stopped and looked at the tire. It looked ok to me. The tires didn’t have much wear on them and the car has a tire sensor. If a tire is underinflated, I hear a beep and see a tire icon on my instrument panel. There was no indication of underinflation. So, once again I ignored the ‘word of knowledge’. We finished packing, paid the bill, and got back on the interstate.

I drove for two hours. Then Judy took over. After about an hour, we heard a loud noise from the back of the car like she ran over something on the road that then hit the undercarriage of the car. Except there wasn’t anything on the road. A few seconds later Judy could tell there was something seriously wrong with the car. “OK, I thought. We need to stop. But not on the shoulder of this interstate. We need to reach an exit”. But no way. There was no exit in sight and it was clear by now that we were basically riding on the rim of the wheel. And still going 50 mph. We pulled over onto the shoulder on the right side of the interstate and got as far from the zooming traffic as possible. There was a small ditch next to the shoulder, then a long slope covered with grass about 2- feet high.

We both exited the car on the passenger side. I looked at the left-rear tire. It had catastrophically failed. But not from a blow-out. The inside edge of the tire, where the tire contacted the wheel had peeled away. Judy saw parts of the tire bouncing down the road behind us when she had looked in her rear-view mirror. The rim was resting on about a half-inch of rubber. The tire was flat as a pancake.

We were standing on the side of the interstate where human beings were not supposed to be, except in an emergency. No kidding – I could reach out and touch the trucks as they flew past. I wish I could tell you that at that moment my first thought was to pray, “God, we need you now”. But no. Instead I reached for the big G – Google – on my cell phone. I asked Google for tow trucks near me. It was Sunday. On the second call I got a dispatcher who said she would try to find her driver and send him to us. “Try to find”? “What if she can’t find him?”, I thought.  

We got out of the car and climbed the bank to put some distance between us and the speeding trucks and cars. It was loud. Driving 70 mph in your car is one thing. Cars and trucks whizzing by you at 70 to 80 mph, less than 10 feet away when you are standing outside your car, is something else.

It was then, standing in knee-deep grass, that I recalled the two times God tried to get my attention – including asking me to check out the tire that ultimately failed. I looked at Judy. “God knew this would happen”, I told her. And in that moment, I knew somehow that right there, by the side of the busy road, He was with us.

I wondered out loud, two times, where the state trooper was. Less than a minute after I asked that question a second time, I saw the red and blue flashing lights of the trooper pulling off the interstate and stopping behind our car. The first thing he said was, “Get out of the grass, get in your car, and buckle up. There are ticks in the grass”. (That night Judy found a tick crawling on her scalp. In that area, these ticks carry Lyme disease – a disease you do not want to have). He stayed with us for a while; he put out flares, and then left us to help another car further along the road. When he left, we were alone again. Then I prayed, “Jesus help us. Send the tow truck.” About 2 minutes later, the tow truck pulled up in front of us. The driver changed our tire. In 15 minutes we had an inflated spare and were on our way.

We were less than 15 minutes from a suburb of Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania. A tire store was there. And it was open on Sunday! They didn’t have the tires we needed, but they could get them tomorrow by noon. So, we spent the night in Mechanicsburg, PA. The tires were installed by 1:00 PM and we got back on the road and reached our destination by early evening.

The next day, thinking about what had happened, I wondered what God was trying to tell me. I have no doubt that the two times I was prompted about the tire I was hearing the voice of God. But was this experience just about a tire? I don’t think it was. So I asked Him “Lord, what were you trying to tell me?” This is what He said:

“I am God. I know the end from the beginning. I am omniscient. Nothing that happens to you surprises me. I spoke to you two times about the tire. This was to show you that I exist beyond time as you understand time”.

“You heard my voice. Remember that and pay attention to Me.”

 “I am with you at all times. Stay connected.

 “I am not a Bronze-age legend or superstition. I am real and I am powerful.”

“I chose to reveal to you what was going to happen. Then I provided for you.  I chose the time and place for the tire to fail – It failed on a straight stretch of highway; it failed less than 10 miles from a tire store that was open on Sunday. I brought the state trooper who set out flares to warn other drivers; I brought the tow truck driver who changed your tire. And I protected you in that place; it was I who gave you a sense of security and the peace that passes understanding”.

“I bring storms into your life.

A flat tire is not a big deal, but it is a type of storm in life. There certainly are worse storms – illnesses, deaths, loss of a job, divorce, etc. Still, it was a storm.  So, I asked God to take me deeper – I asked Him, “What do You want me to learn from this storm?” Ultimately, I got three answers.

First, “Storms teach humility. You believe you are in control. But you are not. I am in control. Totally depend upon me.

Second, “I will always be with you during the storm. I will provide what you need in the moment and I will carry you through”.

Third, “Cry out to me for deliverance, but don’t forget that each storm has a purpose. Seek my purpose for you in the storm and learn.”

That raised another question for me, “If God was the author of this ‘storm’, does he ordain and cause all the storms in our lives?

In this fallen world, things fail and breakdown. Tires fail, cars break down, roofs leak, relationships fall apart, people die young, our bodies fail us. Sometimes these failures and breakdowns are our own fault due to lack of attention, maintenance, or bad choices. But other times, in spite of our best efforts, bad things happen – and not just to good people, but to all people. We think we are in control – until these moments. And then we realize we have no control and we never did.

But we always have a choice. How will we respond in the storm? Will we try to take control? Will we give in to a sense of helplessness, hopelessness, and fear? Will we be angry, whine, see ourselves as victims, be discouraged, or give up? Or will we trust God and put our lives entirely in His hands? Storms, if we see them as gifts, can teach us to surrender, to depend totally on God.

God does bring storms into our lives. I believe He ‘caused’ this tire failure. He uses storms to prune and refine us, if we let Him. But are all the storms in our lives caused by God? I think not. For sure, He will use the storms. Nothing is wasted. And He will be with us in the storms, no matter what they are. But He is not cruel. He does not steal, kill, or destroy.

God is sovereign; He is also good. There is no darkness in Him. Cancer, suicide, depression, murder, genocide, and war are all darkness. Is God, for example, the author of the September 11 disaster in New York City? I watched a YouTube video of a well-known pastor who said, “Yes, God ordained 9/11”. In other words, he is saying God caused and ordered 9/11 to happen. And, this pastor said, “That is good news for the 10,000 orphans this disaster created.” Really?

So, I asked God yet another question. “God, do you ordain storms like genocide, war, plagues, cancer, mass murder, rape, sexual slavery, sexual abuse of children, and drug addiction, to name a few? Are you the cause of all of this evil?” God was silent. Then He reminded me that He had spoken prophetically to me about the future, He showed me His mercy and provision, He was present in my ‘storm’, and He brought me to ‘the other side’. He demonstrated His faithfulness and love for us. And He taught me, once again, what total dependence in Him looks like, because no matter what I might believe, I am not in control. He is.

So, perhaps the questions, “God, are you the cause of bad things in the world; do you ordain tragedies and disasters?” miss the point; and in the light of God's sovereignty will never be answered in this life. Perhaps the better question is, “God, where are you in this storm?”. And the answer to that question will always be, “Right here. I am with you. You are not alone”. And if we let Him, He will wrap us in love and light.

Sometimes we just need to seek Him in the storm.

“You will seek Me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you” (Jeremiah 29: 13).

Are you facing a storm right now? He is with you. Ask Him, with all your heart, “God where are you” and listen for the answer. You will be amazed.  

Amazed at His goodness,

John

PS. One more thought: Maybe God brought this relatively minor storm, demonstrating His presence and faithfulness to us, to prepare us for a much larger storm in our lives. Who knows?