“God not only slowed me down, He also taught me a number of things I have never forgotten. Such as; when a friend is in truly intense pain, be it physical or emotional, it is a great comfort to them for you to just be there, no words are necessary.”

I find it interesting that the first thing that Ford’s New ’Curve Control’ does in order to save you from crashing is; to slow the vehicle down .  Slowing you down up to ten miles per hour in one second, (braking in a curve was never advised when I took drivers Ed.). 

Fortunately with the Lord we have an even more advanced system He deploys when we are going too fast in a curve.

A number of years ago we had just Started our Chrysler store in a small town in North Carolina and we had gotten off to a great start and selling more cars than I thought we would, and sales were growing. It appeared we would be way ahead of all goals. We just had one full time sales person and I and my two partners were selling as well. Personally, at that point I suppose that I accounted for about half the sales. So when it appeared my Lymphoma had come back, (in my brain this time). Things slowed down very quickly from a sales stand point.

I had an unbelievable bad headache that when they did a CT scan found inflammation in the ménages of my brain. So I was set up for a brain biopsy, (something you don’t ever want to have if you can get out of). The good news was that they found no cancer and I was on my way back I thought in a few days. That’s when God deployed curve control in my life.

When the surgeon did the biopsy on me he put a titanium plate in my head to cover the hole. That plate carried a staff infection and within a few days I found myself back waiting on another surgery to remove the plate, with a new kind of headache, I now know was called a brain abscess. A pain more intense than any morphine or other pain medication they gave me would even make a dent in. Yet this is where God deployed one of his servants. Romona Seachrist, she was a neurosurgery nurse who was also in my Sunday school class at church. While they were waiting to rush me in for emergency surgery, Romona, simply was just there waiting by my side, but for me it was like God himself telling me, “I’m right here with you.” She never said a word, she was just there and I can’t even explain how comforting that was in the pain onslaught I was dealing with at the time.

When I came out of the surgery the real battle for my life ensued, day after day the infection spread, I would go and have an MRI across the hospital my only escape from the room. On my return another new bag of another anti-biotic each time with the hope that this would be the one that would work. Finally the day came when the nurse hung a bag of Vancomycin, a strong Annti-biotic, as she hung it she told me that this one was the last chance I had to stop the abscess. One chance was all God needed to save me again. Just as with the Lymphoma and the crushing between two cars, I was left with a few scars but no serious disability, basically whole again.

When it was over, the whole ordeal had taken about six months, while God had me in ‘Curve Control’. The dealership had gone from selling about forty cars a month to about twenty five. I couldn’t help but wonder, “what was God doing slowing me down just when we were staring to roll?” That answer came that August when by the end of the month having only sold about thirty five cars we started to run low on working capital. It became glaringly obvious that had we continued to sell cars at the rate we had during the months I was ill we would have run out of money. It takes a great deal of working capital to sell any volume of cars, and being new to this size of volume we would not have been prepared, The sales had to come more gradually as God helped us do with me being down for the eight count.

God not only slowed me down, He also taught me a number of things I have never forgotten. Such as; when a friend is in truly intense pain, be it physical or emotional, it is a great comfort to them for you to just be there, no words are necessary. Certainly I learned 2 Corinthians 12:10 (New King James Version) Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.  The most memorable of course is that, “with God all you need is one chance.”

Connect With Robby on: