Total Loss?

Today we welcome our friend Jackie Adams to the blog as a guest author. She is a life coach who is passionate about encouraging transformative change through her ministry with women and her work with non-profits. Using the skill of coaching, she is helping others discover for themselves the next steps for transformative growth.

My car was rendered a total loss from an accident a few weeks ago where a distracted driver traveling at a high rate of speed hit my car and then went air born landing on the car in front of us.

By God’s grace and protection EVERYONE including the driver walked away from the accident. Thankfully the injuries to our bodies were minimal.

The anxiety from the accident would require me to step up to the mental gymnastics mat with the goal of sticking the landing in getting behind the wheel to drive again. Several first attempts weren’t worthy of a score, but by the end of the week they weren’t a total loss either.

Total Loss of a Missed Opportunity

What was a total loss for me was the missed opportunity to go to Mt. Hermon (I’d never been!) and to share with the women at the Church of the Foothills Women’s retreat on Peace (John 14:27). Their theme passage in the gospel of John is where Jesus is telling His disciples that he was leaving; and that He was giving them His peace.

He went on to distinguish that the peace He would leave them was not worldly peace, and to instruct them to not let their hearts be troubled.

I had spent many hours pouring over this passage and others to help the women understand the purpose for knowing this peace, helping them see the picture of what this peace is and what it isn’t, pointing them to Jesus’ plan for His perfect peace through His forgiveness, and then finally showing the part that we play in living out this peace.

But because of the accident, this was a total loss for me. All the time and preparation, the visual aids, the props were now a total loss. Some of them shattered in the accident.

Our Unstoppable God in the midst of Loss

As the brevity of the accident and the total loss of not going to the retreat settled on my heart, I had peace and my heart was not troubled. The prayers on our (my friend and passenger Gretchen’s) behalf were definitely felt and so appreciated and brought us His comfort. It is and was indescribable surpassing our understanding (Phil. 4:7, ESV).

Gretchen and I experienced the kindness of two women on their way to the retreat (Kristi and Michelle who had just driven by the accident) who would not be deterred from helping us. They were on a mission to get us to the retreat safely! But their presence was much more than that as we described to them at the time they were like “Jesus with skin on for us”.

As much as we (both Gretchen and I) thought we were able, as the time marched on, we began to see how difficult it would have been for us to keep going on to the retreat. Getting checked out by a doctor on the advice of the CHP and the tow truck driver for potential internal injuries had to be our priority. As we hugged and said goodbye to Kristi and Michelle, them going on to the retreat and Gretchen and I going to the Emergency Room, we had peace about not being at the retreat.

The women’s ministry team, already on site at the retreat began praying for us a soon as they heard of the accident. Their prayers for us were felt and again brought us peace that they would with God’s help find a solution to the problem of what to do now that they had no speaker.

Our decision to get checked out at the ER instead of going on to the retreat left the team totally dependent on God. Their faithfulness to prayer and obedience in the face of a total loss of a speaker became a beautiful picture of dependence on God.

In the midst of loss, our unstoppable God’s plan moved forward. The women’s ministry team, the Mount Hermon staff and the women attending the retreat went into prayer action asking God to reveal His plan.

Faithful and true to who He is – the Lord provided and several women shared their God stories and their certainty in the peace of Jesus through their total losses. They shared five things God had shown them through His Word on peace. They shared the Gospel, they offered communion and they shared with each other how they had seen the women’s ministry team go to prayer, rely on the Lord and how they saw them lead it out!

After the retreat ended I had a chance to meet with Sandy the retreat coordinator. The excitement and light of Jesus was so evident in her remembrance of what our unstoppable God had just accomplished at the retreat in the midst of total loss. “For nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:37, ESV).

Hearing how relationships were strengthened, new relationships formed, and their experience of genuine unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:4, ESV) was such an encouragement to me.

Good News of Great Joy

But the good news came as she shared that nine women made decisions to either rededicate their lives to Jesus or give their life to Jesus for the first time! Praise the Lord!

Even in my missed opportunity to be at Mount Hermon getting to meet, share and love on these women how could I not share in the good news of great joy of what God did?!!

What was very evident to me is the plans of God are unstoppable even in the midst of loss and the peace of God is possible even in the midst of loss!

God’s unstoppable plan for a future (eternity) and hope (today) went forth in the midst of loss. While I wouldn’t want to have to go through an accident again, I am thankful and grateful for what God accomplished through the faithful obedience of the women at the retreat, committed to the cause of Christ.

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jer. 29:11, ESV).

-Jackie

You can read more from Jackie on her personal blog www.jackieadams.org