Saved by a Voice

Recently I had the wonderful opportunity to bear my testimony in sacrament meeting and share the story of a near death experience that I endured about 6 months ago. 

To paraphrase, I was running down the highway through American Fork Canyon, blasting music at an unholy volume, and I felt a prompting to remove one of my earbuds. Because of this, I was able to hear a car that was approaching from behind and be able to move off the highway accordingly, but since I was running in the oncoming lane, I wasn’t in too much danger of being struck by the car from behind…. Later on down the canyon, after praying and thanking the Lord for being able to feel the Spirit and for the blessed opportunity to be running that morning, I approached a blind left hand turn, where there was zero visibility of the highway around the bend, and little to no shoulder to run on due to the towering cliffs of American Fork Canyon butted right up against the road. I heard loud and clear that I needed to cross from the oncoming lane to the other side of the highway. I begrudgingly obeyed the prompting and crossed over to the opposite shoulder. As soon as I exited the oncoming lane, a large truck barreled around the corner, completely invisible to me until the last second. I stood safely on the opposite side of the road, dumbstruck, as I imagined the fate that would have befallen me had I disobeyed and continued to run in the oncoming lane of traffic. 

I firmly believe that because I exercised faith in that initial and simple prompting to remove my earbud, I was INSTANTLY blessed with further communication from the Spirit. And had I not continued to have faith as the Spirit prompted me to change my course and cross to the other side of the road that morning, there is a great chance that I wouldn’t have been bearing my testimony that day. 

Although in my experience, there was immediate proof of my possible outcome had I not obeyed the promptings of the spirit, more often we have to rely on faith that the decision made based on those promptings was the correct one! We have to have faith that because of our diligence in hearkening unto the whisperings of the Holy Spirit, we will be protected and blessed.