Prompted, Prepared and Protected

Something happened today.  Definitely has a WOW factor.  Some would call it unique, mystical, even weird.  Some would call it luck or co-incidence.  Co-incidence, maybe.  But I was once told that the definition of co-incidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.  I like that.  Okay, did I get your attention?  Curious about what happened?  If you are - read on.  

I went up north to Munds Park for our ward camp out this morning.  Dayna and Ali went up last night and I drove this morning by myself.  It's about a 2 hour drive, give or take, and I really enjoy the time by myself to listen to good music, to think and to ponder.  I actually had such wonderful thoughts about another topic for a new post to this blog.  A future post I'll get to soon.  Okay, back to my experience.  I did drive up and had a great few hours, then time to come home.  Dayna and Ali stayed in Munds Park to look up his aunt who was there.  So I started driving down the freeway, fast traffic, some curves and a few cliffs with drop offs.  You get the picture.  About 30 minutes into the drive, a thought popped into my head.  Not a voice, just a thought.  This thought was, "I need to get in the right lane and not speed".  Now I have to interject something here.  I grew up learning of promptings and such.  I've heard many stories, all of which I believe.  I've had thoughts before that may have just been thoughts.  But I've also had thoughts telling me I should do something, and I didn't.  One particular time, I had the same thought 3 times in a short period of time.  The thought was to call my boss about something.  I ignored it all 3 times, dismissing it.  It was such a little thing with not any real significance anyway.  Within a matter of minutes, it came to my attention in a real big way that I should have payed attention to that thought and called my boss.  It hit me like a ton of bricks.  It was no less than a prompting, not life saving, but a prompting that I ignored.  I took that experience and decided I never wanted to feel that way again.  I also wanted the Lord to know I was listening and not ignoring.  So, I have been trying to pay attention to those "thoughts", no matter how small or insignificant they seem.  Now back to the freeway.  I changed into the right lane and kept my speed down.  I pretty much stayed there, unless I needed to pass a really slow vehicle, and then I moved back to the right lane again.  It may not have been anything, but I was going to be safe, not sorry.  I kept driving.  Then I heard a noise that immediately caught my attention.  It was brief, only a second or two, but loud.  It sounded like my tire hit something that hit the metal of the van as well.  At least that's what it sounded like.  I immediately looked in the rear view mirror expecting to see something on the road that I had hit, something like tire tread from another vehicle.  Not a thing to see and nothing wrong with the way the van was driving.  I didn't feel it hit anything either.  I thought, do I pull over and check?   And a thought came back to me, "just keep driving."  So I did.  Now I have learned to be extremely aware of noise and vibrations and anything else that's just not right in my vehicles, and there was nothing at this point, except that brief noise that could have been nothing.  I felt comfortable to just keep driving.  As I got closer to home, I started to hear an extremely slight vibration in the van. 
So slight, it was almost unnoticeable. I didn't feel it, but I heard it, in the way my cup vibrated in the cup holder.   I was not quite where I-17 meets the 101 and I heard that same noise again.  The one where it sounded like my tire hit something.  This time it lasted a few seconds longer and maybe even a little louder.  Again my eyes immediately went to the mirror, but nothing to see.  I now felt/knew that there was something wrong, but what do I do. I stayed in the right lane, wondering do I get off the freeway now and check, or do I go ahead and take the 101.  A thought came back, "just keep driving, carefully, with both hands on the steering wheel".  Within a matter of minutes, I took the ramp onto the 101.  It was a single lane ramp and I had to slow my normal freeway speed down to take the ramp.  So did the cars behind me.  It was there that my left front tire blew.  It was not a convenient place for this to happen.  At least that's what I thought at the time.  There wasn't much of a shoulder, but I was able to control the van and get it to a spot where the tire could be changed.  Within a few minutes a police office pulled up behind me and called for their roadside assistance.  I was back on the road within about 30 minutes.  I don't know what might have happened if it blew going down the freeway with lots of other vehicles speeding all around me.  I don't know why I was  prompted to "just keep driving".  When I went to the tire shop later, the attendant told me he has never seen a tire blow like that, still in one piece but totally shredded.  Not sure what that means either.  I do know that I paid attention to the promptings and somehow knew that if and when I should pull over and check, I would know it.  I never felt panicked or scared, just a matter of fact feeling that something was going to happen and I was not alone.   I felt completely okay with that. 

So, what do you think -- weird, mystical or just plain lucky?  I think not.  I know not.  And I am grateful.