Someone's story

Alright, a Christian workmate of mine, who would like to be kept anonymously (haha), wrote the following story. It's his story. I promised him I will put it here, and here it goes. (Man, it takes up so much space on my blog!)

The Bus, the River and the Text Message (A True Story).

Just me and a driver on that rickety old bus. Travelling through a lush, thick, tropical forest. The trip definitely had purpose - I knew it was important that we get wherever we were going, just me and that driver in a bus that seemed to me, to be on its last legs! We were travelling in the middle of nowhere. The weird thing was we weren’t travelling on a road, but on the brim of a dry river bed. Just on the lip of the river, heading up along the edge on sun-scorched clay and coming ever-closer to a wide massive dry river basin surrounded by the deep green foliage. It was like a scene you would see in “Indiana Jones” or “Romancing the Stone” or similar adventure movies. Just me, the driver (who I could not see clearly – I was at the back of the bus) and this incredibly beautiful remote part of paradise. Clear warm blue skies, arched over the sun parched river bed. The basin we were driving towards, was awe-inspiring, I mean like a great huge bowl opening in the middle of nowhere. I knew I was on an adventure!

All good, until the sound of surging waters could be heard from some distance behind the bus! This was from back down the river, where we had just come from. I knew behind us, back down the river, was a waterfall. Not just a tiny waterfall, but a massive waterfall! So you can imagine by this stage I knew I was dreaming... Water does not travel up waterfalls or even uphill for that matter! This wasn’t a trickle of water either... It was a torrent! Thousands of cubic tons of water, came up from behind us and squarely hit the back of the bus sending us reeling along the course it was travelling. Before I knew it we were caught up in a surging mass of fierce water. The massive basin was quickly filled and we were being swirled around the lip of this basin and back out and down the river to the water fall! The scene was incredible. Because of the recent dry parched ground I could see the cracked river bed below at times. The water was incredibly strong, incredibly terrifying – but in a way incredibly beautiful. We were now completely at the mercy of this mass of water. The waves were knocking the bus around - hitting up against the windows, but we were still floating. We were still alive! In fact, I felt more alive that I had been in a long time. I was amazed and terrified. What probably amazed me most was the calmness of the driver...

He had his back to me. Even with the masses of water, threatening to overwhelm us – he stayed focused on his job. Eyes straight ahead. Like he knew that everything was planned... I called out to him, asking if this was the norm for this type of trip! You can imagine, I had a lot on my mind. Shouldn’t we be on dry land again? Why were we even travelling in a river?!? As if he knew my thoughts, the driver without even turning spoke. The sounds around me of rushing water dissipated and he calmly said. “I have travelled this route, many times before. You have to trust me and this bus to get you where you need to go. We need to work with this current, let it take us on the next part of the journey”. I was still troubled, even though the man spoke in reassuring tones. It did not help that to my left another bus, clearly in trouble and overwhelmed by the water pass us on its way to what I knew would be oblivion. That water fall was further ahead! The buses back windows were broken by the current and it was taking on water. It lulled under the waves. It’s back fast disappearing under the overwhelming torrent. I was pretty shaken up seeing what was happening to the other bus. I turned once again to the driver of my bus, whose face I could not see. He said to me again in a calm tone. “That driver was not prepared”. It was then that the edge of the waterfall came into view. I did not see the other bus again, my attention was now focused on the sight before us. Our bus was not overwhelmed, but was quickening pace, as the current smoothed as we came ever closer to the edge of what seemed an unfathomable drop. And then something extraordinary happened...

The bus wheels touched ground again. The current had landed us onto the opposite edge of the river. The bus drove steadily up out of the torrent and back into the jungle and we headed on in our journey and onto a new road! I could see the basin behind us and the waterfall’s edge to our right. I could appreciate more their beauty from a distance! At the end of the day, everything the bus driver said was true. The bus was carried through dangerous places and I just simply had to trust his purpose for the journey and what he had planned for us. With all of that - my heart beating fast - relieved to be alive but excited by the part of the adventure we had just been on... I decided to wake up...

What you do not know was I had been having bad dreams for nights leading up to this. Nightmares, that weren’t welcome and I didn’t want! I prayed and asked God in the small hours of the morning, why when I had asked for His help before that night’s sleep He allowed me to have a disturbing dream like that! I was shaken. Though I knew this wasn’t a nightmare. It was almost like a picture. Like something He wanted to show me. I couldn’t get back to sleep – but just prayed about it. Trusting God wanted me to see this dream. So I asked Him “Why did you allow that?” And then, at that moment, a friend texted me a scripture from the Bible to encourage me. He knew nothing of my dream or my asking God the question. This friend rarely texts me and it was an unusual time to receive a text message. But the timing was perfect! This is what my friend sent me...

"Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze." Isaiah 43:1-2

This is one of the several significant ways God has spoken to me in the last few years. I have several more stories to tell. Just as amazing! The text described my dream perfectly and told me of what was to come. I was secretly glad that I didn’t come to the “Fire” part of the journey in my dream! But saying that, when I do... I just have to keep trusting the driver... and that rickety old bus.