My pickup after I wrecked it last Saturday.

My Impactful Morning

I walked out to my pickup last Saturday morning and there was ice on the windshield. I didn’t think too much about it because that’s common this time of year. I looked around and saw that the street was wet, but not icy. After I started the engine, and before I scraped the windshield, I looked at the outside temperature gauge and it read 37 degrees Fahrenheit, so I wasn’t too concerned about ice on the roads.

As I pulled out of my driveway, I turned on a Christian radio station and started listening to a podcast about the meaning of suffering. Not far outside of my neighborhood, I turned right onto River Road, toward the fire department where I was to participate in apparatus operator training that day. The fire station is about seventeen miles from where I live.

The first ten miles went just fine until I came up behind a white Toyota Tacoma pickup traveling 10 mph below the speed limit. I found that mildly frustrating because I didn’t want to be late for the training. I patiently waited and after another two or three miles, I finally had an opportunity. After passing the Tacoma pickup I was driving between 55 and 60 mph, westbound, on this lonely two lane highway, less than five miles from the fire station.

I was traveling straight ahead, until I came upon a very gradual right hand curve. As I turned the steering wheel slightly to the right to follow the curve in the highway: nothing changed, I continued straight. Immediately I could tell I was driving on ice. So the highway curved to the right, but I continued straight ahead.

I touched the brakes and again, nothing changed.

I turned more to the right and my truck oriented to the right but continued traveling straight ahead.

So I turned back to the left and my truck oriented to the left but continued traveling straight ahead.

The problem was: straight ahead put me on a collision course with a power pole.

All this happened within a few seconds. And in that brief moment I remember thinking:

“Ice.”

And, “I can’t believe I’ve been listening to this podcast about suffering and I’m about to have a brutal and terrible collision with that power pole.”

And, “I’m not slowing down.”

And, “If I hit that power pole the wrong way, there’s a good chance I could die.”

I left the roadway and went sideways through a barbed wire fence taking out several metal fence posts.

Sideways a very short distance through a muddy field.

Sideways into that power pole.

I came to an extraordinarily abrupt stop and the airbags deployed.

The power lines were arcing and sparks were falling down onto my truck.

My horn was blaring–stuck in the on position.

My ears were ringing.

The power pole was broken, and leaning at a 45 degree angle, the weight of it supported only by the power lines.

It took me a few seconds to orient myself. I found my phone lying on the floor, undamaged. The horn continued to blare but the arcing and sparking stopped. And there didn’t appear to be any power lines on the ground. I opened my door and stepped out of my truck. I walked to the road. The impact was so violent, I could hardly believe I was walking. About 150 feet behind me the white Tacoma pickup I had passed was nose down in the ditch, so I headed that way to see if they were okay. As I was walking I called 911. The two people from the white Tacoma were fine. I asked them if they saw me crash and they said they hadn’t, they just lost control when they hit the ice.

A few minutes later the engine from my fire station showed up and for the first time in my life, I had to endure the very humbling experience of being on the other end of a fire call. (While they were there, a third pickup truck hit the icy patch and also crashed.) The guys were great and they didn’t harass me about it. They even gave me a lift back to the fire station so I could participate in the training.

The Impact From that Impact

After that near death experience, I was reminded of what Jesus shared about the ten virgins in Matthew 25.

“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

“. . . you know neither the day nor the hour.”

In that moment before I slammed into that power pole, I knew there was a good likelihood I would die. In fact I can’t remember a time when I thought it was so likely I would die. I’ve never felt so vulnerable, even during my career as a firefighter, and even while I was flying hang gliders. It wasn’t even a long drive, my destination was only 26 minutes away. People drive all the time. It could happen to any of us, at any time.

I was reminded how fragile our lives are.

Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed.

Memento mori.

Psalm 90:12.

Live for Jesus with everything you have.

Start now.

Available on Google Play Books and on Amazon!

Love Like Jesus: How Jesus Loved People (and how you can love like Jesus)

Love Like Jesus begins with the story of how after a life of regular church attendance and Bible study, Bennett was challenged by a pastor to study Jesus. That led to an obsessive seven year deep dive. After pouring over Jesus’ every interaction with another human being, he realized he was doing a much better job of studying Jesus’ words than he was following Jesus’ words and example. The honest and fearless revelations of Bennett’s own moral failures affirm he wrote this book for himself as much as for others. Love Like Jesus examines a variety of stories, examples, and research, including:

• Specific examples of how Jesus communicated God’s love to others.
• How Jesus demonstrated all five of Gary Chapman’s love languages (and how you can too).
• The story of how Billy Graham extended Christ’s extraordinary love and grace toward a man who misrepresented Jesus to millions.
• How to respond to critics the way Jesus did.
• How to love unlovable people the way Jesus did.
• How to survive a life of loving like Jesus (or how not to become a Christian doormat).
• How Jesus didn’t love everyone the same (and why you shouldn’t either).
• How Jesus guarded his heart by taking care of himself–he even napped–and why you should do the same.
• How Jesus loved his betrayer Judas, even to the very end.

With genuine unfiltered honesty, Love Like Jesus, shows you how to live a life according to God’s definition of success: A life of loving God well, and loving the people around you well too.

A life of loving like Jesus. (Kindle, hardcover, and paperback now available on Amazon and the ebook is now available on Google Play Books.)