When I was a teenager, I tried to go to California three separate times. The first time I was thirteen years old. I had run away from home, and my friends and I stole a truck. Destination: San Francisco. We made it as far as Greenville, Texas, where police and the owners of a gas station from where we stole gas chased us. I remember I was lying in the bed of the truck as we tried to make our escape in a high-speed chase. I held on for dear life as our teenage driver fishtailed, spun, and did everything that should’ve sent me flying from the truck altogether.
God was looking out for me that day, that was for sure.
I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself,
that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.
Jeremiah 10:23
The farthest I made it to California was a juvenile detention center in Greenville, Texas. Just a few months later, one of California's most devastating earthquakes hit the San Francisco Bay Area, and I wonder to this day what might’ve happened if I had made it that far.
The second time I tried was three years later, in 1992. A friend and I were drunk and decided to hitchhike to Los Angeles. We made it as far as Mississippi on a tractor-trailer with a truck driver whose handle was “Southern Comfort.” We later learned that this man intended to take us to the Mexico border and sell us in the sex slave trade. Miraculously (and I mean that in the literal sense), we were saved from that unspeakable fate by another truck driver named “Pack Rat,” from whom, after hearing a voice in my head telling me to trust him, we accepted a ride back home to Arkansas.
Not long after this event, the Los Angeles Riots made history.
The third attempt was around the same time, but I don’t recall exactly the year. One night, I went to the Greyhound bus station in North Little Rock, Arkansas, and bought a ticket to California. But my bus never arrived. I sat in the terminal for hours, waiting until I finally gave up and left.
God did not want me to go to California; that is a certainty.
These are extreme examples of times God has saved me from making terrible mistakes. But I can also give plenty of lighter, more relatable examples.
One that sticks out more recently was a few years before my husband and I moved to Mexico. We were about to sign a 6-month contract to lease a small building for my husband to use as a gym. The rent was about $600 per month, and we had just met with the realtor and were due to sign the paperwork that day. Strangely, she never called us back to meet with her, even though this lady tried very hard to sell us. A short time later, my husband and I realized what a colossal waste of money, time, and effort renting that building would have been, and we were so grateful that God intervened.
The heart of man plans his way,
but the Lord establishes his steps.
Proverbs 16:9
There have been countless times such things have happened to me when I was on the cusp of planning to go through with something that would later prove to have been a costly, even deadly mistake. And, as I’ve already described, the events surrounding these interventions were often oddly coincidental and felt supernatural, the things that make you stop and think, “Did that really happen?”
Of course, we don’t always escape making bad decisions and often are met with significant consequences. But these mistakes that God lets through are opportunities to grow and learn through our missteps. Thankfully, we have a good God who will never let something happen that He disapproves of.
Can you recall any instances when you said to someone or yourself, “I dodged a bullet there”? How many times can you remember when you felt like God intervened and stopped you from doing something that would have been disastrous? And how often have you given credit where credit was due?
Those bullet-dodging circumstances were never luck. When I met my husband, he told me one day when I used one of the common phrases regarding luck, “I don’t believe in luck; God makes good things happen.” And I’ve not believed in luck since. To me, luck is a word nonbelievers use when they can’t explain how something positive happened. In the same way, they use the word “coincidence” when something unusual happens. Luck and coincidence are terms made up by the Enemy to reroute credit from God.
Let’s be grateful to God for steering us in the right direction, removing obstacles from our paths, and always being there to help us when the Enemy is working overtime to make us stumble.
In the comments section or a dedicated journal, write down any event in your life when God saved you from making a mistake. Some of these things might be so small that you might never have realized it was the Hand of God. Give credit to God for intervening in our lives at just the right times.
May God bless you, your family, and your life.
The text in this article is copyright © 2023 Jessica Redmerski.
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How incredible our God is! Too many interventions by Jesus to mention on my end, but no coincidences or luck with our God 🙏🏼
Yes! He is faithful indeed 😊