John was a teenager in the \u201870s, raised in a very religious family. But he was more interested in hot cars and pretty girls. \u201cMy faith was very superficial,\u201d he says, \u201cconsisting mostly of a strict adherence to the rules except when my parents weren\u2019t looking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shortly after getting his driver’s license, John landed a well-paying job at a local grocery store chain. Soon he talked his dad into letting him buy a motorcycle. \u201cNow, my independence was complete,\u201d John explains. \u201cI earned my own money. I was buying my own vehicle. I felt like an adult.\u201d (And at six feet tall and 250 pounds, he certainly looked like one!) <\/p>\n
So one day when John\u2019s mother forbade him from visiting his girlfriend after school, he was immediately rebellious. \u201cI\u2019m going, and nothing you can say or do will change my mind!\u201d he shouted. His mother, stunned, began to cry. John had never defied her. But now her son was storming out the back door. \u201cI\u2019ll be home by ten!\u201d he shouted over his shoulder.<\/p>\n
After school, John went to his girlfriend’s house in a nearby town about 30 minutes away. The teens spent the evening together watching television. \u201cI was so wrapped up in her that I paid no attention to the time,\u201d John says. Finally at 9:45, he headed home.<\/p>\n
But getting home normally took a half hour. To shave time off his drive, John decided to take a shortcut across a highway closed for construction. Veering around the yellow-and-black striped barricades, John sped up to about 70 miles per hour. A few moments later, he lost control and the motorcycle began to flip.<\/p>\n
\u201cTime seemed to slow to a crawl,\u201d John says. \u201cI hit the pavement, head first, and tumbled down the highway, head over heels. I remember seeing the moon pass my knees! And as I rolled to a stop, I remember the extreme silence of the night.\u201d Clothes torn, John was bleeding from head to toe and could barely move. He was also in the middle of nowhere, on a detoured highway, with no hope of traffic coming by. Would he die, he wondered hazily, before the road crews discovered him the next morning?<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I lay there drifting in and out of consciousness, I saw two very bright lights approaching,\u201d John says. \u201cIt was a car, and I knew I needed to stop it.\u201d Shakily, John stumbled to his feet, stood swaying in the middle of the road and waved his arms for a moment, then fell again onto the pavement. But the driver had apparently seen him, for the car slowed, then stopped. It was a recreational vehicle.<\/p>\n