Hello, my name is Mark and although I’ve never had an addiction or a “need” for alcohol, my abuse of it could have cost me my life on 2 separate occasions; I will share one of those with you today.  I never have “needed” alcohol, but when I partied I partied hard. That might be surprising from a guy that grew up in a pretty good home in Northern Virginia, but it’s the truth. 

I’m sharing this with you today to show how God’s grace, basically giving me a second and third chance when I didn’t deserve it, has kept me alive and has since woken me up to the damage that could have been caused if my mistakes had killed me.

Arguably the greatest act of God’s grace in my life was the summer after my freshman year of college.  I had left a party at a friend’s house in Herndon, VA and was heading back to my Dad’s house just a few miles away, where I was spending the summer.  If you know the Herndon area I was on Franklin Farm Road (very windy road – one of those you have to pay attention at all times, even more so if you’re intoxicated) heading towards my Dad’s. My route crossed over the Fairfax County Pkwy where I didn’t end up at my Dad’s house, but rather passed out parked in some random driveway.

You see, I don’t remember ANY of this except about a 3-second timeframe in which I remember driving down Centreville Road prior to turning on Franklin Farm Road. 

How many lives did I put in danger?  Who knows?  Did I stop at the traffic light when crossing the Fairfax County Parkway? Probably not.  A night of fun and drinking could have turned extremely tragic for my family and the families of those I could have killed. 

            

What if a mother and her little girl were coming home from a birthday party and I had hit them? 

What if a newly married couple on their way home from the airport after their honeymoon had been victims of my mistake? 

Why was I spared?  Could it have been luck?  Possibly, I guess, but I’d be naïve to chalk it up to luck.  Could it have been God watching over me?  Most likely – and the way God has helped me in other areas of my life leads me to believe it was his intervention. 

I can summarize how I was spared in one word: Mercy. 

God excusing me from having to face those living nightmares when my actions warranted such consequences.  That’s why I’m sharing this – without God guiding the steering wheel and guiding me away from danger I could very well not be here today.  And that just wouldn’t affect me, it would impact and cause pain to those I love.  It would have deeply affected my Mom, my Dad, my brothers, my nephews, my friends and God.

Not everyone in a similar situation survives, even if they believe in Jesus.  But the point is that without God watching over me I highly doubt I would have escaped that situation without harm.

I thank God for intervening on my behalf and I pray that you see him working in your life as well.  He is so awesome and he is reaching out for you… you just have to look for him.