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Highway to Hell

by Shannon Coday  
6/22/2016 / Christian Living

Have you ever driven through Temecula, California in 111 degree temperatures with the air conditioning off because the car is overheating?
Well, I recently did that very thing with my husband. As the temperature gauge in the car rose, we both looked at each other, communicating with distraught eyes our reluctance to become human ants under the magnifying glass of our windshield. We knew however it was that or stand on the side of the road as the car went up in flames.
Needless to say as I reached over and (quite bravely) switched the air to the off position, both my husband and I prayed loudly for a miracle. When no rain immediately materialized we resigned ourselves to a twenty minute ride through Hades.
As the ducts shuddered to a stop we instantly felt like we were driving through a fiery wasteland. The air became thick and heavy and akin to breathing brimstone and ash. I instantly started to sweat all over my body (not an attractive sight) and movement seemed superfluous as I imagined that my sitting very still would somehow cool me down.
Both our eyes locked on the gauge waiting (praying) it would go back down to normal. As it slowly sank back to the middle I continued the torture by turning the dial to the heat setting. A maneuver my father had taught me in my twenties.
I wish I could adequately relay the depth and breadth and height of the heat as it enveloped us from inside and outside the car. My side had the sun and my arm began to burn. The sole of my foot which I had tucked up by the door turned red in seconds. Speech became difficult as we languished through two oclock traffic. We were sunk, desperate, fading when the Lord spoke to my heart. I turned my eyes from the condemnation of the temperature gauge to my husband.
You know what I just realized?
His response was slow, thick, a man whose tongue has swelled with thirst, what?
As blistering as this heat is, as sweltering as it is, this is not even an nth of what it will feel like in Hell.
The thought horrified me. At that particular moment I could not think of one person, not one, that I would have wished this awful stifling car ride on, and yet I knew that millions would face this very fate on a scale of heat unknown to manfor eternity.
First it must be plainly stated that my God has said He does not want any to perish. His love is so great that He made the ultimate sacrifice. He sent His only begotten son Jesus, to make it possible for any who would believe in Him to receive an eternity diametrically opposed to the burning heat of hell (John 3:15-21). Yet everyday it can be logically assumed that thousands, if not tens of thousands, who die are sentenced to a place burning with fire and brimstone (Matthew 7: 13014, Revelation 20:10).
The timing and topic were, as is Gods way, very timely. The Orlando shootings had just occurred. A young Christian woman who was becoming famous through her artistry was shot and killed. Turmoil prevailed over a nation whose glory seemed remote and intangible.
My brain, melting like an ice-cube on hot pavement, was still able to discern that there was wisdom to be found from this chaotic frenetic car ride if I was willing to hear what the Spirit of the Lord was saying. This is what I heard, and what continues to reverberate in my soul like a gong ringing supper time:
The body of Christ (that is what we Christians are, one body with Christtwo flesh becoming onea mystery Ephesians 5:30-32) acting as the Bride honoring her husband, does not judge the life span of another (Matthew 7:1-5). Having no omniscience, we cannot look at a moment in time and determine a persons salvation. No! Instead we are to love like Christ loves the Church and gave himself for it (Ephesians 5: 25). Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). As described in 1 John, there is only torment in fear and if we dont cast out the fear we cannot be made perfect in love. It is important for the remainder of this article to relay a moment in time that took place for my husband and I just a day or two before the Orlando tragedy.
I am fortunate to be able to travel with my husband all over the country for his work. We were returning from a trip to Missouri and had a 2 hour layover at Dallas Love Field in Texas on June 10, 2016. We had deplaned and were both anxious for a cigarette (I know. We are trying to quit) after our 3 hour journey.
We went beyond the concourse and down the stairs to step outside. When we had finished we decide to find something to eat. Having another two hours to wait we decided to stay downstairs, outside of security, and the only thing available was a small bagel shop. We both ordered and sat at a small table in the back of the alcove eatery.
We had just begun to enjoy our lunch when several people came running from the baggage claim area looking over their shoulders and appearing frightened. My husband and I looked at each other confused, when suddenly a large herd of people came running and screaming past us.
Shooter! Hide! These were just a few of the words we heard before standing to our feet.
We watched a security guard across from the Bagel shop draw his weapon and peek around the corner towards baggage claim. We watched the few dozen people in the TSA line rush the agents as they ran through the machines and scattered. We watched as a woman with her two children came running into the bagel shop screaming Shooter! Get up! Hide! She ran to the back door of the bagel shop and began banging on it saying Let us in desperately holding onto her children.
It must be noted this all happened, quite literally, in a split second. One moment we were eating relaxed with not a care in the world, and the next moment we were enveloped in fear and looking for a way out. My husband, filled with a need to protect me, stepped toward the danger as I was clawing my way into the back of the shop. I screamed his name and he began walking toward me, it was an eternity before he stood behind me. Meanwhile the woman with her children had begun to pray in front of me.
I admit with shame it was not me that started to pray first. I was confused and frightened but when I saw the huddle begin to form made up of saints, doubters, and unbelievers, (a huddle I knew instantly must have occurred at every national disaster ever perpetrated on our country) I stepped into it, my arms automatically embracing the strangers around me, and began to pray with them. I felt my husbands arm come around the back of the group and with shaking hands and trembling legs we lifted our voices to the maker of heaven and earth. We prayed quietly but succinctly for the Lord to be with those involved, for the shooter, for Christs presence in the situation.
The shooter turned out to be a police officer confronted outside baggage claim by a distraught young man fighting with his girlfriend who was the mother of his child. The man turned his attention to the officer when he arrived and began threatening to attack him with large landscaping stones. The officer fired nine shots, one piercing but not breaching the window of the baggage claim area.
At the time, after the furor had died, there was only relief that this was not a terrorist attack, but I could not help but wonder, why Lord did you let this happen to us? And then I woke to the news a few days later of the Orlando shooting, and I got my answer.
As I was processing the news of the worst mass shooting in American history, I must admit to reflecting on exactly where it had taken placea gay bara gay nightcluband I was tempted in that moment to judge. Not coincidentally, at precisely that moment, God brought into remembrance exactly how I felt in the airport. He reminded me that these were appointed moments in time; Moments when Christians have the opportunity to run away and save themselves, or huddle and pray, moments when those whove left their first love and have strayed into darkness are pierced by the light of His love, moments when decisions are made before reaching into eternity. My soul anguished as the reality of the situation wrung over me.
I called to my Lord to forgive me for a purely self-focused reflection on the situation; to forgive me for standing as a Pharisee in the temple condemning. I empathized with the terror that each individual in the club felt, heard, and witnessed, and thanked my savior for bringing me closer to His perfect love for each and every person there that night including the lost soul of the Muslim man who felt he had to kill all of them.
This is Christs perfect love. It looks into the face of evil recognizing and mourning the dozens of sons, daughters, mothers and fathers who will not have another opportunity to hear the gospel. They will never again on earth know how the body of Christ loves them and wants or celebrates their salvation. They were either a part of the body of Christ and alighted to heaven, or they were not and took a blistering car ride on the highway to hell. The finality of it is so overwhelming for me, I cant think on it for too long.
I adjure you brethren, friends and strangers; find the perfect love of Christ. It is the ONLY answer for the times we live in, as well as what is yet to befall the earth and its inhabitants. Salvation is a gift, there is no payment. Only believe and you shall be saved. As my earthly father used to tell us If Im wrong about Christ, youve lost nothing, youve lived according to His preaching, loving your neighbor as yourself, and doing good deeds to others. If, on the other hand, I am right, youve secured a place in Heaven that no man can take. The truth will resound inside you, and what has been put into our Lords hand none will be able to steal (John 6:37).

Shannon Coday writes under the pseudonym Shannon D.C.
She has finished her first Christian Fiction novel which will be available on Amazon later this year. She is married with two children, three grandchildren, and her dog Shorty.

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