God's Hand, My Choices

By Robert Coombs

The drive from Texas to Florida, without God's hand, would not have happened. My choices showed me it was not just about me but about my mom and dad too. My mother instinctively knew her son was spiraling out of control. The automobile crash brought him to the brink of death. God showed him heaven and then sent him back to give this testament. God watches over us, giving us free will to choose. This is about my choices and the miracles from God. The 240Z flipped three times crushing down on my visibly dead body. I was pinned between the console and roof. The crash results: three skull fractures, an induced stroke, partial paralysis on my left side, and permanent deafness in my left ear. After a mastoidectomy surgery in Paris, Texas, things did not improve. Talking and walking were difficult, and each day of my recovery had my mother getting more distraught. With each troubled conversation, she sensed my frustrations. Mom was stressed with me and at home. She did the only thing she could do. She called me in an uncharacteristic panic telling I had to come home. My normally stoic father was worried about her, so I had to make a choice: stay or go to Florida. God gives us choices all our lives. I had been making the wrong choices, but it was time for God to intervene. My first good choice was to give up almost all I had in Texas and go home to be with my mother and father. I am human, so there was doubt when it seemed hopeless. Pushing doubt aside and trusting God, this trip was filled with miracles others would consider luck or coincidences.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 23, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098007003

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God's Hand, My Choices

Robert Coombs

Copyright © 2019 by Robert Coombs

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Origins of Faith

The Phone Call

My Issues

Crash Consequences

The Move to Paris, Texas

The Decision

Leavin’ Texas to Meet Rev and Bubba

Leavin’ Texas, Ralph, and His Wife

Finally Left Texas

Louisiana through Mississippi

The Black GMC Pickup

Breakdown in the Florida Panhandle

Prayers Answered

Obstacles and Blessings in Florida and Texas

Tallahassee and Its Obstacles

Leave the Light On

For my Mom and Dad, who loved me unconditionally.

For my wife who loves me unconditionally.

To my extended family, who have shown me unexpected love and understanding.

To everyone interested in reading this, enjoy

The Lord gives strength to His people; the Lord blesses His people with peace.

—Psalms 29:11

Prologue

The following events actually happened to me. The people are real. All the help they provided during this unbelievable trip has been documented as it happened. I did not change what the people said or did during this trip.

Trust me when I say, I have made many mistakes in my life. Thankfully, God is patient and loving. My mistakes did not, and have not, deterred Him from watching over me. The following events attest to that. Only through Him was I able live, and to later complete my journey from Texas to Florida, and record them for my Mother.

The following events reflect my flaws, and some of the bad decisions I made prior to this trip. These poor decisions emphasize the stupidity of my youth and how I lived without God in my life. A car crash, and the trip from Texas to Florida were wake up calls to keep God in my life, and to trust the direction He has for me.

He made me realize the choices I make will either keep me on a track of happiness, or derail me to a place I do not want to go again.

God always, and will forever, give us choices. For every choice He presents to me, I try very hard to keep an open heart and mind. I try to listen to what He wants, and the direction I need to go. Smiling: Needless to say, I pray a lot.

Life is full of disappointment and questioning why things happen. The thing is…God does not make it easy to know why things happened the way they do, but I have learned this: He will show the why when it is time. When that happens, things always fit together like a good puzzle.

I still make mistakes and bad choices. What can I say? Being human is tough. Only Christ was perfect, and through him, forgiveness is infinite. What I know is that His love for me always turns me in the direction I need to go, regardless of my initial impatience and poor choices.

While you read the this, the events and people I met during the trip may be construed as coincidence. They are not. Some may even think I made them up. I did not.

Lastly, I have tried to soften the language used by some people I met along to the way. I ask for your understanding when you get to those parts.

Chapter 1

Origins of Faith

Growing up in Vermont and Massachusetts, the church was a major component and influence in my life. My Mom made sure my brothers and sister attended Sunday school every week. She encouraged us to be involved and to participate in church. She also encouraged us to participate in school activities to keep us well rounded. Not knowing it then, I had choices to make at a very young age.

My Dad attended church, but he did not embrace the church like my Mom and I did. He was always there though. Mom and Dad supported us and were there to watch or listen to me when the church had kids do something special for the congregation. One time, I memorized all the books of the Bible and recited it to the congregation one Sunday. Smiling at the memory, even my Dad was proud of me that day.

My faith was so strong I wanted to be baptized as soon as possible. It took a little help from my pastor, Pastor Kirk. Even at such a young age, this kind man saw, or maybe felt I was ready for this immense personal event.

In order to be baptized, the deacons had to approve it. Pastor Kirk talked to the deacons about me, and my faith in Christ. My Mom said it took a bit of a push, but Pastor Kirk convinced those elderly—stoic—Baptist men to allow my Baptism.

I was 12 years old when my entire family watched me walk into the water, and declare loudly my love and devotion to Christ. They did not get to feel the complete love that enveloped me when Pastor Kirk dipped me in the water, but I wished they had. I never thought my relationship with God would, or could, ever fade.

The funny thing about growing up: The physical changes affect you in many ways you are not even aware of, or expect. The mental changes, as the knowledge of things outside of a safe comforting home, bombard your being.

Reading about lust in many forms, cruelty, kindness, peace, and war from the Bible is completely different from the reality I faced when I physically and mentally grew from a child, into a young adult. The Bible was a book that told me about those things, but living in the world exposed me to those things.

The reality of growing up has its wonders, changes, and realities I was not ready for. Since I was not prepared, God would force me to learn—the hard way—that He gave me choices I needed to pay attention to. Paying attention took a little more time for my thick brain to understand, but when I finally ‘got it’, I realized was He giving me choices for a reason.

I learned that His love for me, for us, never ends. Based on my experiences, God lets us live our lives the way we choose. The tough reality is that He is pretty much hands off. That—to me—is a scary thing, but I believe if we have a relationship with God, we will make the right choices. Do not get me wrong, the right choice, is not always going to be carefree. If you have a relationship with God, well, Satan will be constantly trying to get you to dump God and go with him. Satan’s choices will make them sound so good for you, but down the line, yeah, no, it will turn out to be not so good at all. Satan cleverly twists things, making wrong sound right, and right sound wrong.

We are constantly presented with challenges and temptations, but that’s the difference between having a relationship with God, and not having one. With Him, we have faith that everything is done for a reason: good and bad. Without Him, we roll the dice, and blame Him when things don’t turn out the way we want them too. Here’s the kicker for me: Even when I strayed, He gave me chances to make the right choice and get back on track. Yup, I have chosen the wrong way more than once, but after I relaxed and prayed for direction, I made the right choice. He is patient, but persistent. He will direct us if we allow Him. But sometimes, enough is enough, and he clobbers us to get our attention.

If I have not bored you and you continue reading, you’ll find out how God clobbered me.

Chapter 2

The Phone Call

In 1980, my parents migrated from Massachusetts to Florida to begin their retirement years. I was living in Paris, Texas, after having mastoidectomy surgery to clear bone chips from my ear canal after a car crash. An event in my life that will be explained in more detail later.

My Mom and I tried to talk once a week and catch up on how their retirement was going, and how I was doing. Of course. Mom and Dad had been worried about the surgery, and what caused me to have the surgery in the first place. There wasn’t ever a time—on telephone calls I had with her—that my Mom did not