Can you hear a still, small voice?

I was traveling on a winter slickened road.  The speed limit was 65 and I was traveling a prudent 60 due to the weather conditions.  In my mind I heard a voice say, "Slow down and move to the right."  I thought, "Everything is fine, the cars around me are traveling wisely.  Why would I slow and move?"  I'm a little slow to catch on to "Spirit," or "Conscience," or "Intuition," whatever you wish to call that flash of knowledge that comes to all of us from time to time.

Three times I heard the same message, "Slow down and move to the right."  I finally (really I needed three times to listen?) listened.  I slowed down to 55, and wound my way through a very heavy traffic to the right lane.

Almost instantly to the moment that I reached that right lane I heard a sickening sound.  Metal, hitting metal, hitting metal, hitting metal.  A car had passed me going at least 70 and possibly 80 miles an hour on those snow-slippery roads.  I noticed that the car was from Nevada and thought to myself, "No wonder they don't know how to drive on slick roads."

His car had spun out, and began to hit other cars like a sick, horrible version of pinball.  I pulled to the emergency lane of the highway.  This was long before cell phone usage.  (OK, I was NOT alive when dinosaurs roamed the earth....well not very alive anyway!  :^)

It wasn't very long before emergency vehicles were on the scene...sirens screeching their sound of rescue.  I can't remember exactly how many cars were now twisted, and mangled.  I was in 100 percent shock.  If I hadn't slowed down exactly when I did, moved to the right exactly when I did...I would have been a part of that hideous pinball disaster.

The police combed the area looking for witnesses to try and sort out what had happened.  After they gave me the OK to leave, I slowly limped to the nearest freeway exit and called my husband.

Nyle asked "Honey do you want me to come?  If I drive over to you then we will both still have to drive home.  I could call someone to bring me but that would take longer.  Do you just want to drive, very slowly and carefully, and when you get here I will give you the biggest hug!"

I climbed aboard the (frontage road) that paralleled the freeway but offered much less traffic, and much less speed.  It took me twice as long to get home but it also offered the peace of mind that if someone went for a spin, I could get out of the way.

When I reached home, I wanted to bend down and kiss the ground....seriously, I just wanted to kiss my own personal soil sample.

I went in the house and was immediately greeted by our cute kitty Oozoos, and my beloved honey.  He engulfed me in one of his amazing hugs (he was six foot four inches, and built like a football player) I was five foot six inches, and slender.  Oh how I miss those hugs of engulfment.

Do you ever hear a voice in your head that says, "Slow down move over, or don't pass right now," and then you find out that the car you were going to pass chose that moment to pull into the left lane without blinking? 

Those little moments probably happen a lot more often and we don't even  know.  After all if a crash is avoided we don't even remember the incident.

My point is learn to listen to that voice.  One of my beloved neighborhood daughters read a book about fear.  It taught that intuition can give each and any of us a nudge along the path to safety.  It advises that you learn to listen to those warnings.  The writer claims that evolution has placed this warning system in us to insure the safety of the species.  I disagree with why we have those promptings but I absolutely believe they are there to protect us.

So...today, if a little voice says, "Go home from work 30 minutes early to be safe and avoid traffic," I don't know if that's anything other than the fact that you're tired of work and want to get home.  If that little voice says, "Slow down and move to the right."  DO IT!  If that little voice says, "Put your seat belt on...now!"  DO IT!

Learn to listen to your little voice, I don't care what you call it.  I believe that God has put in each of us an early warning signal to help this life be as crisis free, and healthy as possible.  That doesn't mean that we will sail through life untested, untried.  This life is intended to be a grand school...a place to learn from our mistakes as well as our positive choices.

Unfortunately the voice can't save us from our own poor choices.  Do you EVER need a small voice to say, "Don't even attempt to try heroin...it's hideously addicting and you will spend the rest of your miserable life searching for your next hit, your next high."  No small voice should be needed.  That is just common knowledge.

You should not need a small voice to tell you, "Indiscriminate sex is a poor choice. (For teenagers.  Hopefully anyone 20 years old and older know this as a fact.)  Have you never heard that you can get pregnant after even one time of having sex?"  For adults, "Indiscriminate sex is a poor choice, it can cause all types of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, that you will have to cope with for the rest of your life.  It can cause Aids which may substantially shorten your life, and make the rest of your life a battle with your health.

We are not always protected from the poor choices of others.  We all have agency...the ability to choose in any and all situations.  My own family was in a terrible car accident when a young man was not looking at the road.  They were on the shoulder of the road having car troubles.  He hit them going 75 miles an hour.  He didn't even brake.  All three of my family were impacted for life.  I believe that it shortened my Nyle's life.  So...remember the use of your agency can cause others to suffer.  Sometimes that little voice, or early warning signal, can help protect you from spending your life in regretting the misery you caused in another person's life.

I love a simple children's hymn from my faith, "Through a still small, voice, the spirit speaks to me, to guide me, to save me, from the evil that I see."  Listen today...listen tomorrow...learn to listen!