Wednesday, February 17, 2010

15 Years

Fifteen years ago today, a professor who locked the classroom door at 8 a.m. and my propensity for running late (then) made for an almost deadly combination.

Fifteen years ago today at 8:06 a.m., a car accident left me battered, bruised, bloodied, with a concussion and a broken neck.

It would be a long time before I would drive again, and an even longer time before I had the courage to make a left turn in my car.

Fifteen years ago this summer I trekked back to school, SOMI neck brace and all, to complete the incompletes on my grade card. I couldn't take notes, so I brought a recording device to capture class information. I never gave up. Never.

Some anniversaries are worth remembering, especially those in which God grants you a second chance.

How about you? Ever had a second chance at life?

13 comments:

  1. goosebumps Rebekah. Where were you going to school at the time?

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  2. oh my goodness! so glad God had his hand on you and you are ok. that is an amazing story. Good for you for going back to school.

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  3. No second chance story, but I admire yours!

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  4. I have been given so many second chances.....
    3 years ago, God spared my life during child birth (and the life of my 1 lb. 2 oz. baby). He is AWESOME!

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  5. ok, remember how we said if we lived closer we would definitely be friends?
    total goosebumps
    because 15 years ago
    next month (march 20) i was spared from an accident when i spun out on side of the road gravel doing over 140 km/hr and flipped up my car on a telephone pole. a face full of glass, clothes that had to be cut off me, and a nose that needed to be reconstructed, but i got out of that driver door through the window (now squished in equal size to the side mirror) and avoided a live hydro line laying nearby. God and His angels were there and I didn't know Him yet. and that has definitely made me who i am today. so yes, i've been there. (crying now) ok, I am so thankful God gave you a second chance and He gave me one and today He will give someone else one, because that is exactly who He is.

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  6. So grateful for your second chance, Rebekah (You, too, Michelle!)

    I look back, and I see more than a second chance. No, I have not had something so terrible happen to me, but there have been so many times where a split second could have ended my life.

    God is good, and I am so thankful that He watches out for us.

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  7. rebekah. sigh. rebekah. my friend. i am glad you are in my life. your strength encourages me. my second chance was with chloe. and thinking about the one who never made it into my arms only one year before. weeping now. thanks for letting me get that publicly out.

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  8. God is so good to us, and so patient. He must really love us an awful lot to stick with us the way He does. I love that the Bible is full of people who got second chances!

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  9. I remember that day well, also, Rebekah. A scary time for you, and your mom and dad. Grateful the Lord chose to spare you. Blessings to you.

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  10. Thanks for sharing! He is good!

    After living in India for just 4 days and asking the Lord to bring Indians to me no matter what, I fell off the 3rd floor balcony the very next day. I dropped 25 1/2 feet. As Joshua 1:9 being a key verse for me, I truly felt His presence the whole way down-broke my wrist, chipped a few teeth, and slightly cracked my 7th vertebrae. Never unconscious. Indians immediately surrounded me, helped me to the hospital, and from that point on, with purple neck brace and blue cast for the next month and a half, started making friends in the neighborhood! I knew that He could have taken me home easily from that fall, but rejoiced that He had more for me to do! A husband, son, and second opportunity of living in India later...He is still worth living for and serving even in the small ways that He saves me!! I love you Jesus!

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  11. Wow! This is an amazing story, Rebekah! I just sat here with my eyes wide open and my jaw dropped to the floor. Thanks for sharing!
    I love that you never gave up...that you finished school. What an awesome testimony to perseverance!
    God is so good! I'm glad that He allowed us to connect here! You have such beautiful words of inspiration!

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  12. Rebekah what a beautiful testimony to God and His faithfulness! I love this post.

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  13. Thank you for sharing friend! God gave me a second chance. Although not like yours it was pain wrenching. My husband of five years left me with the excuse that I was getting closer to the Lord and he just didn't want to, got another woman pregnant, and there I was... I never knew pain like that. But God was with me through it all. Two years later I prayed for so many things in a man. God gave me EXACTLY what I prayed for.

    David's friend's daughter went to the school I taught at. He told Dave about me. So Dave came to the school to "check me out." You see... his story is just like mine.

    A blind date, three months dating, and we knew God gave us each other for our second chance.

    The life before feels like eternity ago even though it was only seven years. But, it was an old life. The life that God wanted for me I am living right now.

    I love the verse I read this week in my daily reading. "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. Who can list the glorious miracles of the Lord? Who can ever praise him half enough?" Psalm 106:1-2 NLT

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