The following is a former winner of the Amazing but Incredibly True Story Contest.
Copyright Muse Enterprises, 1999
My father was an alcoholic until I was around the age of 16. My mother and I by this point felt as though we had been through hell and back. I really don't want to get into any details about it because it is still too painful to think about. I have come to terms with my father and learned to forgive him and love him more than ever. I understand now why he had this experience and put my mother and I through it.
So when I was around 16, my father joined a church and suddenly everything was supposed to be wonderful. My father was forgiven in God's eyes, supposedly, but there was something missing in the picture. He had not asked for our forgiveness. We had gone through this experience with him and yet there seemed to be no remorse or effort to make amends. All I really wanted to hear was, "I'm sorry, please forgive me," but those words never came.
My father did other things to make it up to us, but this one thing still stuck in my mind. So, this feeling soon turned into bitterness and rebellion. In the rest of my teenage years I became a nonconformist, a cynic, an atheist. I was a devout and proud atheist who scoffed at religion and its outrageous beliefs. I challenged God to prove it to me if there was more to life.
Then while at college, I came across Einstein's theory of E=mc2. For some reason this idea stuck with me and I discussed it often with my friends. Something was puzzling me. Since energy can not be created or destroyed, and our bodies are made of energy, then what happens to us when we die? Then one evening I had a most unusual and almost tragic experience. A friend of mine stopped by and wanted to go out for a while. Most of the time I would have been excited and eager, but for some reason a foreboding or eerie feeling came over me. I did not listen to this because it just didn't make sense in my logical mind, so I took off with my friend.
Then as the evening went on I started to hear a voice in the back of my mind. It said something like, "Get in a taxi and go home." I kept hearing this voice over and over again and I was beginning to wonder if I was losing my mind. Then as I was walking, a black cat ran right in front of me. This traditional bad luck symbol really got my attention. The eerie feeling got even stronger and I was obviously not enjoying myself so my friend decided to take me home. Then as we were driving home on the expressway, the car went out of control and started heading towards a bridge. I later learned that the steering system went out on the car.
At this point, I had an overwhelming sense that our car was going to go over the bridge and I was going to die. As you've heard before about a person's life passing before them, I saw it plainly in my mind's eye and then I just blacked out. A bit later I woke up over the car looking down at two inanimate bodies being touched by people from an ambulance. It was me lying there with my friend laying on my shoulder in a pool of blood. Then like a wonderful revelation, I realized something that deep down I always had known: I had a soul. Energy could not be created or destroyed; maybe there was more to this God thing. I then realized that God was trying to answer my question but I had had to learn the hard way.
A few seconds later, I was back in my body and I felt a little dazed but otherwise I was just fine. My friend wasn't so lucky; he was rushed to the hospital with broken ribs, a brain concussion and other injuries which took time to heal. My friend later told me that he had seen that I was heading out through the windshield and his body somehow came down in front of me and stopped this from happening. I'm really not sure what happened at this point except for the fact that God finally showed me that there was more to life than just flesh and blood and this earthly life. For that I am deeply grateful and I have been on a spiritual quest ever since. This quest has enlightened my life and brought me closer to God than I ever thought I could be.
Thank you God, for a second chance at life and my opportunity to learn and grow in your love.
To contact the author, write to Donna Collins.
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