Cover Story

"I Know"

It’s obvious to me that the Lord saved me from a couple of car wrecks that were just about as bad as they could get. Add to that a few times He’s pulled me out of the water when I was just seconds away from running out of oxygen. Yeah, I know He’s real.

There are times in most people’s lives when they wonder, God, are You really real? Well, I’ve had a few experiences that are undeniable; He’s shown Himself to me in extraordinary ways.

I’m 28 years old now, but I’ve already had two horrible car wrecks—car wrecks I shouldn’t have walked away from. The first one was when I was just 16. A couple of buddies and I had been surfing all morning down on Pea Island in North Carolina. On our way home I was driving, Nick was in the front passenger’s seat, and Jesse was sitting behind me in the backseat.

Well, Jesse said something that made me mad. So as I was driving, I was reaching into the backseat, pinching the mess out of his leg. To retaliate, he started whaling on my shoulder as hard as he could. We weren’t really mad at each other, we were just horsing around.

For some reason I’ve always been a really light-headed person. When Jesse hit me in the shoulder, he must have hit a nerve or something, because my vision started going gray.

As the car approached the hump on a bridge, I slumped over in my seat and lost consciousness. The car swerved into on-coming traffic and launched off another car. The car was six or seven feet above the ground and going about 60 miles per hour.

The car landed on the railing of a bridge spanning over Oregon Inlet. When I came to, the car was teetering on that railing. People were actually stabilizing my car to make sure it wouldn’t drop over the edge and plunge 45 feet down into the ocean!

Nick broke the windshield with his head but only had a cut on his eye. Jesse got really beat up and still walks with a limp to this day. But we all walked away.

I think God used that wreck to bring us all to Him—He definitely used that wreck to wake me up. I finally understood that every day is a gift, and that I’d better start trying to figure out who He is. I’ve made probably 100,000 mistakes since then, but I keep learning and growing in my walk with Him, and He keeps on forgiving me.

Here we go again

In the spring of 2004 I was involved in another terrible car accident. This time it wasn’t me doing the horsing around, but somebody else. Another driver lost control while going really fast. He started fishtailing and hit the back of a minivan. The impact sent him sliding sideways in front of oncoming traffic, and I hit him head on.

It all happened so quickly that I didn’t even have time to react. I remember the car sliding across my lane, and I remember it hitting my truck. I remember the split-second moment of losing control and my body heading for the windshield.

I was knocked out for about five minutes. When I regained consciousness, a guy holding my neck was talking to me. The most amazing thing was the whole time I was having a conversation in my head—a conversation with God.

I was just praising Him with this huge smile on my face. I said, “Hey, God, from the look of my truck, I just got in a really bad wreck—the second one in my lifetime. Yet here I am alive. I just can’t believe You got me through another one of these! I just praise you, Lord.”

I imagine the guy holding my neck thought I was hallucinating or something, because I was actually laughing out loud. I was super happy just knowing that I’d survived.

After that I reprioritized everything. I was like, “Well, I trust You, Lord, that You died for my sins. And if I’d slipped away, I would spend eternity with You. But by Your grace alone, I’m still here.”

After being so happy about going to heaven, the first thing I thought of was that my young wife wouldn’t be without me. So right there I realized that’s what life is all about—the love you have for God, and your love for people. It would’ve been OK if that had been the end, but I was glad it wasn’t.

The second thing I realized was that if I’d died that day, I wouldn’t have been able to to do more for God.

But that’s not the point of the Christian faith. We’re saved by His grace and mercy, not by our good works. Because if it were simply about what we’ve done, we’d all fail miserably. Even the best person on earth would feel like crawling under a rock when standing before Jesus, because His holiness is going to outmatch anything they’ve ever done. When I do step into eternity, it will be 100 percent because Christ covered me with His blood by dying for me on the cross and saving me from my sins.

Yes, I’ve been a Christian all my life. But there have been times when I’ve run from the Lord and have actually made deliberate steps to separate myself from God.

If you’re looking for the most miserable life in the world, it would be a life in which you first knew God, and you knew how good He is, and then you spent the rest of your life running from Him. I can no longer live that life. Without Jesus, I’m a sunken ship. No prize, no accolade, no human achievement could ever separate me from my God. Not now, not ever.

Amy Hammond Hagberg is an author and speaker who lives in Buffalo, Minnesota. Matt Beacham’s testimony is included in her popular book, How Do You Know He’s Real?: God Unplugged (Destiny Image Publishers, 2006), which features 44 well-known athletes and recording artists. She is releasing a new book next month. Find out more on her Web site: www.amyhagberg.com.
 

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