منوة الخيال;1542101 said:
Just curious as to people's attitudes, feelings, general preparedness ...,
I was driving on the highway a couple of weeks ago and was involved with a very heavy conversation when we heard the sounds of car swerving and what seemed like a bomb in the left lane a three car accident which I believe caused one fatality .. It was so surreal a minute in the throes of life and the next death snatches someone a healthy someone instantly.. It's so much different than when you've time to adjust to someone's ailing state to just a casual thing an event seemingly as natural as going to the market or taking a shower!
Of course not.
I am glad to hear that the car did not hit you, that must have been quite scary. I have been in two situations in which I could have ended up dead. One where a car didn't stop on the intersection and slammed into me, I remember flying to the road and it kept coming towards me and I saw the tires get near to my face, but then at the last moment it stopped. I can completely relate to the surreal component. Miraculously, I walked away with only a few bruises.
The other time was when I beaten up by Israeli settlers, and was knocked out by the metal pipe that shattered my nose. As I saw the guys in black masks coming towards me (they snuck up on us and there was no place to run, and I don't believe in fighting) I didn't feel really any fear- probably given that it happened so fast, it lasted a few seconds. I remember thinking "this is it God" and knowing there was absolutely nothing I could do to escape the beating but at the same time feeling at peace knowing that my fate- whatever it was going to be- was in His hands. I had surgery in a Palestinian hospital, the staff there told me that the settlers hit me also across the back when I was passed out, and I also realized that had the pipe hit me just a bit higher (on the temple) or a bit lower (on my neck), I could have been dead.
I'm not afraid to die, whether it happens when I am an old man or whether it happens in a car crash or during volunteering or work- my wife and I hope to serve again in Palestine and if not there somewhere else, and we are involved in the inner city where we live where there is also sometimes quite a bit of violence... or in what other way my life is cut short.
I am thankful to God for my life on earth, as I am able to learn about Him and serve Him and tell others about Him. When it is time to go to be with Him, I will be thankful as well. I am nothing. He is everything. My life and death are in His hands, and there is no better place for them to be.