Certain events have a much larger than average influence on our lives, and life direction. It is as if we are paddling our canoe straight North as we cross a lake, and we hit a rock hidden under the water and now we are headed East. As we think about the history of our life we are not just recounting general events but ones that caused great change. It is fun to remember and think about defining moments. Nothing makes me more aware of God’s sovereign working in my life than to see the history of events in my life that look from the outside to be purely coincidental but are obviously a well-orchestrated plan by a powerful God who loves me, and has a plan for my life.

The first major defining moment in my life was when I got run over by a D6 Caterpillar when I was six years old. The initial doctor’s opinion when they got me to the hospital was that I was going to die. My Mom when she got to the hospital and heard the verdict went into the little chapel and prayed for me not only to live but to live and be totally healed of any permanent consequences from the accident. In the process of praying for me she made a number of promises to God about me which resulted in me rarely missing a church service, I attended every Vacation Bible School event around us, I never missed summer camp, youth group, Sunday School, and prayer meetings were a permanent fixture in my life. Needless to say I was exposed to the gospel and the content of the Bible often, and it all stuck. Some parents are fairly lenient in making sure their kids are fully immersed in the life of the church, not my Mom, she had made a deal with God, and the fact that I was walking around as a healthy young man was ample proof that He had kept His end of the deal, and my Mom fully intended to keep her end as well.