IMPACT by Joylene M Bailey

 

The word that kept coming to mind for this month was Impact. As I thought about it, I was sure I'd written another post entitled Impact some years back. So I searched the IWO posts back through the years, and sure enough, there it was, and saying almost exactly what I wanted to say this time around. So here, with a few tweaks, is that post ... reposted. 

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I was 23 and seven months pregnant with my firstborn when God or His angels stepped in-between the car I was in and the one heading straight for me.

I can still see the grill of that vehicle racing through a red light, aimed right at the passenger door where I was sitting. Time seemed to slow down as I closed my eyes and braced for the impact.

Instead, I heard WHOOOOSH and felt an intense gust of wind blow against my door. I opened my eyes to see that by some strange occurrence we were on the other side of the intersection. I twisted in my seat, as much as my pregnant belly would allow, to look for the car that had been barreling down on us. It was nowhere to be seen. The whole event had happened in the blink of an eye.

My husband hadn't heard the whoosh, hadn't felt the gust of wind. He had swerved but not enough to evade a collision. It was as though we had skipped ahead in time and that the event I KNOW happened had not occurred at all. The memory is so vivid to me. Even after all these years I can describe every second, but I can't explain it. Yet I know without a doubt that God intervened that day.

I believed it was because He still had plans for me, for the baby I carried, and for two more yet to be born. He intended for me to raise three strong, independent girls who would grow up to be women who would impact their world and the Kingdom. He intended for them to raise children of their own who would impact the Kingdom and their future world. 

This is no small thing.

There have been countless times in my life when God's strategic providences were evident. Not all of them have been as time-warping as this one. But each event has added a brick to my wall of faith, making it stronger every time, so that when life takes a dive into the muck, I can trust that He sees the Big Picture from His vantage point. And I can keep slogging it out in the sludge below, knowing He will help me through in His own timing.

He can be trusted.

He can be trusted with my writing too.

It hadn't really occurred to me, until recently, that my writing and its impact might be part of the reason God intervened that day. On those days when I wonder why I think I'm a writer, do my words have any impact, and is it worth it to keep going, I need to trust that there must be some reason He gave me this passion, this drive to write. 

He must need my voice for something.

So, I will write—using my particular voice and my particular style—always trusting that He can and will do whatever He wants to do with it.

Maybe, just maybe, God intervened that day so that I would be around to write this post. To give Him glory for the unimaginable yet very real impact He has on all of us who are blessed to call Him Father and are driven to write about it.

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All photos from Pixabay

Joy loves all kinds of words, but the ones that have the most impact with her are beautiful words strung together. She writes from lake country, Alberta, where she lives with The Cowboy and a couple of small furry friends named Chara and Rhubarb. Find more of her joy-infused writing at Scraps of Joy.