My husband and I were talking about his hit and run accident. Although there were plenty of witnesses, we don’t think the person will ever be found. A few years ago, I had a similar accident. I was driving on the highway and someone side-swiped me. They just kept driving and never even stopped. I didn’t even see who hit me.
The hardest part of those accidents is that now when my husband and I drive, we both deal with the aftermath of those accidents. I can’t speak for my husband, but to this very day, my entire body tenses up when a car drives up on my left side on the highway. The person who hit me doesn’t even know or care about how they changed my life. How could they? That person never even slowed down to see if I was injured or not. In my husband’s case, he was injured, and the person didn’t even care to stop and render aid. We spent almost nine hours in a hospital that day all because of the other person’s inability to stop at a stop light.
When situations like these occur, it is really easy to believe that those hit and run drivers are evil monsters. In my mind, I can imagine some villain from a movie like “Mad Max” targeting my car on the highway and then driving off and laughing from the glee of it all. I know part of that is my great imagination and paranoid nature, but anyone who has been the victim of a hit and run knows that it is easy to imagine the other driver as some evil thoughtless horrible person.
God teaches me to do something else. He teaches me to love my brothers and sisters in Christ, especially people like that hit and run driver. That driver could be anyone. However, whoever they were, they likely ran because they were scared not because they were evil. I have written several times now that fear can make all of us do crazy things. That hit and run driver isn’t an evil monster, that driver is just an ordinary human being. The fact that they were unable or unwilling to take responsibility for the accident just means that they need God’s love more than most people. I won’t ever find the driver who hit me. I can’t show them God’s forgiveness and love. Yet, when I come away from that accident, I can walk away believing that the world has some people who are evil monsters. I can act that way and close myself off from everyone and everything. I can grow hate in my heart for all the evil and pain in the world. But I won’t do any of that. I refuse to do so. Instead, I come away realizing that we are all human, we all need love and forgiveness, and I can keep following God’s commandment to love others as I do myself, even praying for that driver, because I know if I made a mistake, God would show me love, forgiveness, and understanding. He would expect me to show myself love, forgiveness, and understanding. So, when one of my brothers or sisters hurts me, I have to find a way to continue to find love, forgiveness, and understanding in my heart and not let the hate consume me.
My faith saved me. May God’s peace reside in all of our hearts.
