This is truly a great story my friend Justin Snow contributed to The Jersey Effect. He tells of a decision one night that changed his life forever. Here’s what he wrote:

It was a Friday night. I was driving my black Escalade. And I had two other Colts players in the SUV with me, along with three women we had just picked up from Broad Ripple, Indy’s hippest bar scene. I had been drinking; I shouldn’t have been driving, but I still drove anyway.

That’s when the unimaginable happened. A policeman turned on his lights, as he tailed me in his car. Back to reality.

Up to this point, I went through life thinking that I was invincible. I thought I was special. Nothing could faze me. Nothing could stop me from doing whatever I wanted to do … even if it was dangerous. I was in my mid-twenties at the start of my career in Indianapolis (I’ve been there since 2000), and this was my mindset at the time.

My first mistake was that I was driving, obviously. My second mistake was that I pulled into someone’s driveway instead of pulling over to the side of the road. I was in trouble. I gripped the steering wheel, and my career flashed before my eyes. It felt like an eternity as the cop walked up to my parked SUV.

I began to think about the possible consequences. I was playing for the Colts. They don’t put up with foolishness like this. They don’t tolerate sketchy behavior. That wasn’t how they built their organization. My career in Indianapolis is over, I thought to myself. And it was all because I was careless, flirting with destruction and nearly forfeiting the blessings God had poured upon me.

Luckily for Justin, the cop who pulled him over was looking for another person, and Justin, with his friends, were relieved. But that got Justin thinking, which led to some significant changes in his life.

God talks to us in many ways. Sometimes He uses circumstances to grab our attention. Sometimes He whispers in our ear. No matter how to He tries to reach us, He’s always calling us to Him.

No matter who you are or what you do, God’s mission for us is to honor Him. It is through that honoring that others will see our devotion and lifestyle. As Christians, we are the lens through which the world understands God.

How is God talking to you through circumstances in your life?