Article September 28, 1998 Issue

Don't swerve!

God keeps us going in the right direction.

By Ellen Moore Thompson

It happened on a curvy country road. I was going at the posted speed limit and was in the correct lane. As I rounded a bend, there was a car in my lane speeding right toward me. It seemed impossible to avoid collision. Immediately the thought came to me that I was "in the right"; as strongly as if I were being told by God came the words: Don't swerve.

And so, despite a strong inclination to the contrary, in that split second I decided to stay where I belonged. Moments before we appeared about to crash, the other driver swerved sharply. I watched in my rearview mirror as his car rocked back and forth until he regained control and continued on his way. In this instance, staying in place had been the right thing to do.

This was an important lesson to me. When God is telling us what to do, we can't let anything tempt us to swerve. The symbolism of the experience struck me in particular because it came at a time when I had made a deeper commitment to serve God. Even though my desire to serve was sincere, I still found that I needed to remind myself constantly to stay the course. I knew that God's law supports every righteous endeavor, and that because God is All, there can be no law, power, or mind in opposition to Him. Nevertheless, I had to learn not to be distracted by feelings of being unappreciated by God, being found undervalued or unworthy by Him. Such thoughts would tempt me to swerve from the course I knew intuitively to be right.

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