by Laurel Duran, CMT
One rainy August afternoon in 1986 as I drove down the highway alone in my car, my burdened mind turned toward the shambles of my life. My upcoming divorce, the financial failure of the health club I owned, and my recent acceptance of the fact that I had an alcohol problem, stood accusingly before me as ample proof of my complete failure as a human being. I was attending 12-step meetings and that helped get me through each day, but deep down I believed that the failure of my life was all my fault, and there was no solution in sight.
Then, in an instant, everything changed. My car was hit from behind while simultaneously my spirit exited the driver's side-window and traveled up a cord of light into the loving presence of God. From above I calmly realized that the neck of the body that was mine had snapped broken and the car carrying my body was still moving forward. I thought ?There will need to be another impact to stop the car,? and so there was. By the time the crashing stopped, six vehicles had piled on top of the smashed can that used to be my car. To top everything off, this neck-breaking crash occurred on a road called Breakneck Hill Road!
What happened to the real me -- my spirit -- while I visited heaven was to become the most valuable event of my life. I had a personal experience of God?s absolutely unconditional love. I understood that I had never done anything to merit being deprived of this love, and that the only tiny, temporary mistake I had ever made while on earth was to have spent even a moment believing I didn?t deserve love. I realized that love is the only real thing that exists in the world. And without a moment of doubt, all the self-imposed barriers in front of my own heart evaporated into nothing. In the loving presence of my Creator, it was so easy to surrender all my earthly burdens. It was the most natural thing to do. My earthly burdens had been a result of temporarily forgetting the unconditional nature of God?s love, but in a flash it all came back to me. I became peacefully aware that everything that had happened in my life, all events, situations, and relationships, had been part of God?s plan to bring me to love. Even though I had forgotten that goal while I was on earth, I was remembering it again in heaven, and that changed everything. I understood that my soon-to-be-ex-husband really had loved me even though we were getting a divorce. The divorce didn?t matter, but the love did.