Reader Voices: Feeling 'Spirit of God'

A car is headed west on Interstate 40 at 65 miles per hour on cruise control. It begins to lean toward the pavement edge, only to be shaken when the tire first hits the rumble strip near the edge of the paved roadway. The driver is me. In the blink of an eye, a message was relayed to my mind … "You have fallen asleep at the wheel, headed off the road toward a concrete overpass, turn the wheel SLIGHTLY to the left."

It had been a rough few days at work, coupled with late night preparation for my calling in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I packed up my car and headed south toward Las Cruces, N.M., where I was to conduct several business meetings throughout the day which ended around 11 p.m. at night. I had not realized just how tired I was, but obviously my common sense defenses were down when the last meeting ended and I headed for my car.

Instead of following strong impressions to do otherwise, the fact that I had paid for a room in Albuquerque, N.M., and would lose my deposit, combined with a sleep-deprived brain, made sense of somehow driving the three hours to Albuquerque.

Trying to find a short cut to the freeway, I took a wrong turn and ended up on top of a mountain, where the stars were as close and sharp as I had ever seen them. The song "Amarillo by Morning" came to mind, as I tried to make sense of where I had strayed. I was alone, on top of a mountain. It was cold, and no signs pointing which way to go. So I prayed to Heavenly Father, asking for directions. This time, I listened for an impression. It was faint, probably because I had overridden the last one, but I followed what seemed like an impression, along with the trace remains of common sense, and turned around and headed back to find the turnoff I had missed.

Two hours later, I was back on the freeway to Albuquerque. Only three hours to go and to find my bed.

The sign said Albuquerque was 13 miles ahead. The sun was just peeking over the horizon in front of me, causing my eyes to get very heavy. Then I heard a sound much like one would make running the back of your hand across a ribbed metal washboard except this deafening sound with vibrating accompaniment was coming from my tires running across the ribbed cuts in the asphalt highway to alert drivers that they are off the road — and I was!