A Trucker’s Miraculous Testimony (the Hidden Life of Grace)

On a night of freezing cold, one wrong turn lead to place of providence

At 2am, a trucker took a wrong turn, stopped to look at directions, and discovered that idling caused his wheels to freeze to the ground.

I woke up to walk to Sunday Mass. I heard a honk behind me.

The trucker asked me for a shovel, but I didn’t have one. I was able to give him my WiFi password, though, and a scraper. He insisted I head on to church.

When I returned home, I was surprised to see he was still there.

After much hot water, help from neighbors (who brought a shovel), the truck was only digging itself further into the ground. It took the tow truck to move the semi-but that’s not the end of the story.

I received a phone call about an hour later. It was the trucker.

I knew something must have happened. Who calls back that fast?

“I want to share a testimony with you. I was getting coffee at the gas station and noticed a saddened man beside me. I asked him what was wrong and he told me he had some health issues. I asked if I could pray for him. He accepted. Right in the middle of the room, I prayed for him…If I didn’t get stuck this morning, I wouldn’t have been able to do that. If I got unstuck a moment early, I wouldn’t have been able to pray for this man.”

We both talked extensively about the workings and exactness of God’s Providence. Everything happens for a reason. It is by paying attention that we discover God working in each moment. Fr. Nerinckx smiles.

This was a trucker who has travelled to all the mainland states and looks for people who need prayer. I told him that it is amazing to travel all across America spreading light.

We related much about our own spiritual experience. In the contemplative monastery, that was the most freeing year of my life. In the confines of his truck, the enclosure sometimes gets to him, but sharing the faith is what gives him life.

Often we are like a semi truck, turning off the wrong path, unsure of where our final destination is. God is like the tow truck that we have to surrender to—He will life us out of the ice right on time!

Indeed, the tow truck that pulled this man free had Psalm 4 on its door.

“In peace I will both lie down and sleep, For you alone, O Lord, make me to dwell in safety.”

I didn’t think much of it at first, but the trucker, who had to sleep in the cold truck that night, thought it was significant.