FOR JUST A MOMENT: September 2009

Selfish me
Thursday night something happened that I never ever thought I would be such a personal part of. Charlie and I were driving Northbound down I-25 by the Thornton parkway exit in the far right lane after moving some furniture to my Mother and Father in law’s home in Denver. Everything was normal then all of a sudden blue Saturn came within inches of clipping the front end of the truck I was driving while cutting into our lane. Also just barely missing the small white car in front of him in the middle lane. I was like “This Jack Hole just cut me off and almost hit me!” He then failed to straighten out and continue down the right lane and maintained his angle down into the ditch. He went down into the ditch and then smashed through a large electrical box and then diverted into a small collection of large trees, uprooting some and cutting right through others. Then the crazy part happened. All we saw were his tail lights fly up in the air flip multiple times, like a true NASCAR style flipping, and then came to rest on the roof of his car like 50 yards later. I stopped the truck and we immediately began running towards the scene (while calling 911) with full intentions of helping out the mangled/dead/unconscious/child/mother/drunk driver/ all of the other terrible scenarios that were going through my head while running down there. When we got down there the guy who was in the car was already out and walking around. I went up to him and asked him some simple, general questions like, “OH MY GOSH ARE YOU OK???? Was there anyone in the car with you? And what happened??? All he was concerned about was finding his cell phone. I said don’t worry about it and sat him down on the curb and kept him lucid until paramedics arrived. What happened to make him drive off of the road and then do more flips than the Japanese Olympic diving team? He told me he was coughing and then passed out and that’s the last thing he remembers!!! I said, “Holy crap dude have you been drinking? I mean the cops are right here (as they are running down the hill from the highway.)” He said no he was completely sober. Then they put him in the ambulance and took him away to get checked out. Charlie and I stuck around to give our statements.

Somehow this dude was not injured at all. This is him being loaded into the ambulance. He only had a small cut on his chin that was barely bleeding, and some cuts on his forearms that I think were from crawling out of his car which was upside down as you can see.

Charlie thinking HOLY $#!&!! How is this dude ok????

This may sound weird but after this ordeal was over is where I began to feel like the most selfish person on the planet and this is why…. After words I started to think about how thankful I was that he was not injured, and was going to be OK. I then thought, “why am I so thankful he is ok?” All of the answers that came into my head were something like this:
- I am so thankful he didn’t get hurt so I didn’t have to deal with it.
- I am so thankful he didn’t get hurt because I didn’t have to see a dead body.
- I am so thankful he didn’t get hurt so I didn’t have to try and work through getting over the fact that I just watched someone get killed
- I am so thankful he didn’t get hurt because I didn’t have try and pull a mangled body out of a car. It was all about ME ME ME ME I I I I I. It made me furious. How come I couldn’t have thought something like I am so thankful he was not dead because now his girlfriend or wife or whatever still has someone to come home too. Or maybe, I am so thankful he is fine because his children still have a father to hug and kiss before they go to bed. Or because his family doesn’t have to have a funeral for him.

Excuse the ghetto cell photos. Its all I had with me

My own selfishness has become apparent to me and through the help of God and my friends and family’s prayer and support I will continue to grow through my own selfishness. Fighting the flesh is a constant battle for all of us. Last night it just became very apparent to me how much my flesh is only concerned about its self. But thanks be to God that he is ok and that his family does still have the Son/Father/Husband that left that day.