Hello forum. I started this topic because I had been thinking recently about a story that I had heard many times in different congregations over the years.
Kind of a JW urban legend if you will. There is a myth about these JWs that were in service in a rural setting. They were walking up to a house when they saw a vicious dog running at them and they were sure that it was going to tear them to pieces. One of the JWs said a quick prayer begging Jehovah for protection. Before the dog reached them, at the last minute, the dog veered off and attacked a cow instead.
Did you ever hear a story like that?
I bring up that JW urban legend because I had a similar experience. The thing is, mine had a totally different outcome. No, I wasn't attacked by a dog in service. This is what happened to me, my wife, and two 'good' friends.
We were on our way home from a summer assembly about six years ago. All the way home I had been reflecting on the assembly. I had real joy in my heart. About half way home, I was in the midst of a heartfelt prayer to Jehovah. I was thanking him with a big smile on my face and blubbering all kinds of gooey sentiments thanking him for the wonderful assembly. I was the only one in the car that was awake, they were napping.
We were on the Santa Fe relief route that goes around the city instead of through it. Suddenly I noticed out of the corner of my eye a car about to t-bone us. Everything was slow motion from that moment on. For real, that's what it seemed like. In that instant I knew there was nothing I could do to avoid being hit. CRACK! The impact sent us airborne and we flipped in the air THREE times and took out a metal street light post before landing.
Can you imagine spinning in the air like that? Through the g forces and chaos I could see the total horror on my wife's face. And there was nothing I could do but watch. I thought we were goners. Boom! We landed into the pole and rolled down an embankment. We've never been so scared.
Somehow we all made it out alive, but It wasn't Jehovah that had saved us. It was the steel reinforcement in the doors and the air bags. I realized that.
After recovering from the shock, I began to wonder why Jehovah didn't help us. Why hadn't he intervened? We had just spent money we didn't have at a summer assembly to worship HIM. We had been faithful. I was actually PRAYING to Jehovah when the accident occurred. From then on I never felt the same about god.
That experience was one of the many things that led to my wife and I turning in our letters of disassociation some months later.
TB-
P.S. I do not consider surviving the accident to have been Jehovah's help. Like I said, it was the engineers of the vehicle who saved us....