Stephen King is called “the King of Horror.” His books have been adapted into movies, the first one being “Carrie” (1976). In 1999, he experienced his own horror. A man in a blue van almost killed him.
The story is in King’s book, On Writing. It was a June afternoon in Maine. King left for his usual four-mile walk and planned to pick berries along the way. The kids and grandkids were home. They planned to see a movie that evening.
The blue van driver was on a vital errand – he needed a candy bar. In the van was a rottweiler named Bullet and a cooler with meat. When he reached in the back seat to push Bullet away from the cooler, he swerved and impacted what he first thought was a deer. It wasn’t. It was King.
The van crushed King’s body and pitched him over the top. The responding EMT didn’t think he would make it. During the LifeFlight helicopter ride King thought, “Someone is going to pull me one way or the other pretty soon; it’s mostly out of my hands.” It is not clear from the context whether King meant doctors or divine intervention. Either way, the outcome was beyond his grasp.
A life-changing event reminds you that control is an illusion, life is transient, and things change quickly. So says this verse: “You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away” (Jas. 4:14). Without something trustworthy and stabilizing to grasp, that must feel chaotic and hopeless.
“But as for me,” the believer says, “I trust in You, O Lord. I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in Your hand” (Psa. 31:14-15). You recognize God’s sovereignty amidst the chaos, and in Him you find hope. This hope is not a chimera – believing nothing bad will happen – but an assurance that the Lord accomplishes His purposes even in hardship. “If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:31-32).
King uses the logic of Pascal’s Wager (belief “just in case”) to explain his thoughts about the eternal. That logical view doesn’t really help you find peace within today’s swirl of chaos. This does: confess you are not in control and accept that the duration of life is like a vapor. The perspective of eternity is a wondrous vantage point. Life may be fleeting, but you find peace in trusting the God who actually exists. He loves you, is for you, and holds your times in His hand. That’s something to write about.