Doing it God's Way                                                                   With Reverend Michael Cartwright 

Listen to the still calm voice that is inside of you

"The voice of God is talking to you"

My first car was very special to me for many reasons. My dad did not keep it a secret that if any of his six kids wanted a car that they could go out and save the money themselves and buy their own a car. Even though I did have a job, as a impatient teenager I felt that it would take me forever to save enough money for a down payment. I prayed about this and God answered my prayers. My mom went with me to help buy a car by co-signing and helping me with the down payment which I would pay her back. Did I mention that the good Lord allowed my dad to be out of town during this time for the first time in years.

I was just a teenager and I was so excited to drive my first car. Many of the high school kids back in the 1970's never wore their seat belt. It just did not appear cool to my friends and me. So I had decided to never wear my seat belt because looking cool was far more important than being young and dumb.

I will always remember the first day that I drove my new muscle car being fully insured. it was a 1969 Chevy Chevelle Super Sport. It had over 325-375 horsepower and this was stock without doing any modifications. I wanted to look cool with my friends so I knew that wearing a seat belt was not a option as I went to go pick them up.

What I'm about to say is very important to me because it helped save my life.

And I hope the younger generation who are driving on the road today please read and believe my story.

I was very excited as I got inside my muscle car,  I checked my mirrors before I started to back out of my parents driveway. Right before I started to turn on the radio,

The strangest feeling of hearing a inner calm voice telling me to put my seat belt on. Hearing the voice was not strange, as I have heard it so many times before and I just summed it up as the last words of my Mom's concerned voice for her son as I headed out the door.

As I started to drive down the road a few miles this feeling to wear my seat belt was becoming so much stronger that I could not ignore it anymore.

So I drove into a supermarket parking lot so that I could stop the car and shake off this feeling of putting on my seat belt.

I realized that there was something supernatural in the way that I was being led to put on my seat belt, and I knew that it was not just hearing the voice of my parents resonate inside of me telling me to buckle up for safety.

So I reluctantly decided to put on my seat belt, I told myself that when I got over to my friends house that I would unbuckle my seat belt there before I picked up my friends.

Within just a few minutes I was pulling onto one of the busiest streets in town called Mount Rushmore Street. It was the street that led the countless tourist up to see the National Monument called Mount Rushmore.

I was driving no more than a couple of minutes on Mount Rushmore when I needed to take a take a left turn. I noticed that their was a car in front of me that was coming from the opposite direction that also wanted to take a left turn.

Everything seemed fine as I was taking my left turn and the car approaching in front of me started to take their left turn.

What I did not see was a tourist speeding right up behind the car that was taking a left turn in front of me. So right out of no where this tourist switched lanes from behind the car turning in front of me and since I was already turning left which blocked the tourist from speeding on down the road.

I tried to get out of his way as I stomped on the gas, I yelled for God to save me. With over 350 horses under the hood of my car I could not get out of the way as I heard my tires squealing in one place.

The tourist and his family were going so fast that he hit me on the passenger side with such force that he knocked me out of the four lane road. All I remember next was that I was headed straight for another car that was about to pull onto Mount.Rushmore. I saw the driver put both of his arms in front of him thinking that my much bigger car was going to drive right over his hood.

The good Lord allowed me to steer my car from driving over the hood of his car and I was able to drive onto the public park grass before I stopped.

Here is what I would like the younger generation to understand about how God blesses us even if we are in a  3 car accident.

God never said for us to be thankful "FOR" everything, He said for us to be thankful "IN" everything.

God doesn't want me to be thankful for being in the 3 car accident, but He does expect me to be thankful for something from that 3 car accident.

I was thankful that the tourist and his family were not seriously hurt.

I was thankful that my car did not ride over the hood of the much smaller 3rd car with the possibility of killing the driver.

I was even thankful that my dad was out of town for a few days and had time to cool down.

I knew how badly damaged my car was, I had people who saw the accident from the public park who told me that they could not believe that I lived through it.

I thanked God for answering my prayers in allowing me to keep my car from the junk heap.

When they took my car to the body shop to determine how much damage was done, the body shop owner told me that if I would have sustained another $100.00 damage that the insurance would have wrote off my car as 100% being totaled.

Not only was I able to keep my muscle car after it was put back together from the body shop.

I was thankful to God that I was able to be obedient to His spiritual voice to put on my seat belt that saved my life that day. What would have happened if I was not alone as I pulled out on that fateful day out of my parent's driveway.

What if I had turned on the radio instead of listening to that still quiet voice that was nagging me to do the right thing, would I have put on my seat belt, I don't think so.

What would have happened if I did reach my friends house where the only words that I could hear were from the intense peer pressure of my friends telling me that it's all about looking cool and I agreed to not wear my seat belt while we cruised down Mount Rushmore Road. Would we still have had a accident that day or in the near future? The wild and crazy way we drove 375 horsepower muscle cars back then, I know so.

I should have woke up from surviving that 3 car accident. I guess thats why they call teenagers young and dumb because we literally believe were invincible. Believe me when I say this, God has a way of getting our attention to where our eyes are focused on Him. It was not long after I got my 69 Chevelle SS 300 plus horsepower muscle car back that I started to race on the streets with my friends. We were never serious in racing, we just loved to race where ever we could find a open road with any traffic or people. On this particular day we were cruising on the freeway and there was no traffic in front of us for a long ways. So we both opened up our four barrel carburetors and we were both going over 120 miles per hour because back then the speedometer read 120mph and the needle was all the way over.

We were laughing and having a great time, when up ahead about a mile up the freeway was somebody pulling on the freeway from some ranchers dirt drive way. Even though it was a mile up the road. Going over 120 miles per hour meant that we were going to collide in less than 30 seconds with the rancher that pulled innocently out on the road who never saw us. I found myself screaming for God to save us and I will never race again. It was a act of God that we went screaming by the rancher and I don't just mean the sound of our engines and tires squealing. What made this so dangerous was both of us had to go off the road and fit into a single lane as we drove by him hoping he would not go into our lane. Our biggest concern was not killing someone from what we thought was just harmless fun between friends. I'm happy to say that I did quit racing that day and today there are many places that people can race that is professionally set up so that teenagers and adults dont hurt themselves or other people

If you ever hear your inner voice tell you to do something that you know is right. No matter how uncool you think it might look, especially if your friends are drinking and driving. Just tell them something else just came up. (like plans of saving your life) Do it because being obedient to God's voice will keep you from being "young and dumb" and you will be blessed for it by living another day.

Did I mention that God blessed me for being obedient to His voice by having the owner of Kenny's body shop paint my "Soon to look brand new car "Candy Apple Royal Blue" on a Silver Base, which was not standard paint" (The guys out there know what I'm talking about)

Not only could you literally see my car cruising down the freeway from a mile away, if you could by chance look inside as I was driving, you would see me with my seat belt on praising God for allowing me to live another day because He is that real.

God believes in you

Reverend Michael Cartwright

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