HOW I KNOW GOD EXISTS

The story of how I nearly died and what God told me after I didn't.

I know god Exists.

I Do. I know God exists. And it’s not because of my beautiful children or anything to do with the success I had. I believe God has kept me alive during this rough time, but that’s a whole other story.

This is how I KNOW

It was 2004.

December.

I’d just shot 3 episodes of Doctor who and a little film called Kidulthood and was about to travel to Arizona. Acting and Writing for me were still “Just fun” I wasn’t yet focused or fully driven just yet.

We had a road trip planned. Myself, my Girlfriend, Her friend, two of my friends from College. Then we were going meet another American friend “Ceddy” out there, to make a total of 6.

We’re going to do, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah in a big loopy round trip. Everyone was to bring their 10 favourite CD’s and we were just gonna drive, eat, and sleep where we ended up. Only 3 places were set in stone.

LasVegas - New Years eve.

Log Cabin on the grand Canyon - 2nd of Jan 2005.

Utah Jazz Basketball game on the 5th of Jan 2005

Everything else was just gonna be free wheeling.

Jan 5th 2005. The actually game I nearly didn’t get to.

It was the 23rd of December. I’d just got my Christmas haircut in Mo Betta cuts on Ladbroke Grove London when I bumped into a friend from primary school called John. He waved and came over.

“How you doing since the crash mate?”

I had no idea what he was talking about and I told him that. Then John said some words that still haunt me to this day.

“Oh Shit. I had a dream about you getting in a car crash. It was so real.”

I hadn’t been in a crash though and I kind of dismissed what John said as just one of those things that happen. A dream.

That was until Xmas day. Apart from the fact that my mate Phil decided they couldn’t make the trip, making it 5 instead of 6. I’d had a decent Christmas and was chilling in the evening when a friend named Mark called me. (He’s a pretty big Director now) Anyway he got on the phone and wished me Merry Christmas and all that, then asked me when I was flying out. I told him I was leaving in the morning. Heathrow to Phoenix Arizona. Then Mark said to me.

“Don’t get in any RED cars. I had a dream you had a car crash and you were in a red car.”

WTF!! Now I can be pretty cynical but when two people in the space of a few days who don’t know each other told me that they both thought I’d been in or was going to be in a crash. And one was specific enough to mention a red car. My mind started to log this information pretty strongly.

On the 26th we flew to Arizona. met up with Ceddy and spent the first night in his house. The next morning we headed to Enterprise rentals and waited for our 2005 Dodge Durango, and no joke. when it arrived it was BRIGHT RED!

Now I hand’t told the others what had been said to me, but the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and something told me we could not take this car. I told them the story and although they laughed at me they agreed not too if it bothered me that much, We told the member of staff we couldn’t take the red one. He came back with a blue one and we packed our bags inside.

I got in the drivers seat about to take off when I released that the last person that had rented it had wiped about a million boogies and snot on the steering wheel and inside of the driver door. We sent it back straight away and the staff member apologetically came back with our new car. A brand new 2005 Burgundy Durango.

Yes. Burgundy - Now a lot of you are thinking well that’s blood red. But I wasn’t thinking that. I was thinking the red one was gone and didn’t give it a second thought. The trip was great, Blue skies and Red Rock mountains. We took turns driving, except my mate Geoff who always sat right at the back and never wore his seat belt. EVER!

We saw everything we could and immersed ourselves in American and native American culture. We drove and ate, stopped, chilled, drove, laughed and listened to each other’s music and drove and chilled some more. Some hours we were in feet of snow in the Arizona mountains, the next we were in T-shirts in the heat in the Nevada desert. It was one of the best trips on my life. One night we ended up in a really cheap motel 6 in flagstaff Arizona all sharing a room. Then a couple of days later we were in a luxury suite in the Luxor pyramid hotel in vegas, all squeezed into a hutub.

We saw shows, ate at the best places we could afford. played the slots in the casinos went to all types of clubs and I think the girls even went to watch thunder down under.

We hit the Las Vegas strip for new years eve night and then we went to see Maroon 5 on new years day and spent a night in a log cabin on the grand canyon. but as much fun as the stops and sleepovers were. The waking up to the red rock mountains. The road. the driving, was as good.

The Show I was at. Songs about Jane.

Then…

4th of January 2005 - 18:25

Britney Spears toxic was playing. We were driving to Utah and had been going up the mountain for a while, and were now on the highway doing 75mph and it was getting dark, We drove through one cloud of hail stones. Just one cloud which was odd, and Geoff put his seat belt on. We laughed as it was the first time he ever did on the whole trip and we didn’t think one cloud was that scary. God told him too. I know it. because 5 minutes after that our lives were changed.

The first thing you hear is the noise. like sandpaper sliding across a paving slab.

Then you realise you can’t control the steering wheel, because you’re on black ice.

I wasn’t driving but I could see Ceddy struggling, then we were suddenly going sideways, as an oncoming car honked and just missed us.

I remember seeing the barrier at the edge of the highway coming towards us then BOOM!!

We hit. I remember seeing everything jolt and Judder sideways, then black. I guess your eyes automatically close.

The car flipped and rolled about 5 times down a ravine and was stopped by a tree not far from a cliff edge. What you can never understand after something like that is the silence. Its silent. it’s almost like your ears shut down.

Then your senses come back. The first thing I heard was something pinging. Then the whirring of wheel moving. I couldn’t tell if we were upside-down and couldn't see anything outside through smashed glass.

I felt okay asked if everyone else was and nodnody answered, I thought they must all be dead. I asked again a slowly “yeps” came back.

I realised we were on our side and climbed up towards a window, pushing my door open. Gravity tried to close it, but I got it wide enough to climb out.

A trucker, who later told us that he saw our tail lights swerve and disappear off the road was half sliding, half rolling down the ravine to come and help us. His huge truck stopped on the highway with hazard lights flashing. He came over and helped me help everyone out and kept asking if we were okay every 2 seconds.

My girlfriend couldn't get out. She was trapped inside and worried the car was going to explode as it was leaking petrol and smoking. I climbed straight back in to get her, pulling and tugging at things until I was able to free her. Although I still would do it. The thought scares me more now. But at the time I was only interested in getting her out.

Utah state police and Highway patrol came soon after. the girls got in the trucker cab to stay warm I stood with the police as they spoke about what they saw and took statements. One of them made the sign of the cross.

“This is the worst accident i’ve seen it 18 years on the job where nobody has died. A family died here just last week on the black ice. This is a miracle.”

Then the other said

“Nah a miracle would be one losing and arm, one losing an eye, a broken neck and some broken bones, but them all survivning. I don’t know what this is.”

None of us had a scratch. Not a scratch and the car was destroyed. And I knew. I knew right then that god had warned me.

John and Mark had visions to warn me. If I had taken the bright Red car. I’d be dead. We all would.

God warned Geoff with the cloud was sent to make him put his seatbelt on or he would be dead.

God warned Philip not to come on the trip. So he wasn’t at the back with Geoff where he would have died.

And when we were finally sent on our way with no injuries. The police took us to a Holiday inn who gave us a free night in a double suite and access to all the hotels perks. Although I wasn’t in the mood to use them.

I sat there thinking about what had happened when Ceddy’s phone beeped as he finally had signal. His dad had left us Messages at 18:30 (the exact moment we had crashed) telling us to get off the road because he felt like an Angel told him we were about to crash but we’d be okay.

None of this was coincidence.

We woke up the next morning and the sky was bright blue, the mountains were red and the insurance delivered us a new car. It was almost so perfect that I thought maybe we did all die and this was just what happened. It was all a little too good to be true. It was only later that day when at the game Utah Jazz lost in Utah. I knew we must be alive.

God wouldn’t make Jazz lose in Utah on that day if it was a death fantasy

Jokes aside. It wasn’t spoken. But god told me that night through realisation. You are here for more. Know that. I warned/saved you so you can be what I sent you to be. You are here to work hard. You are here to achieve more, to create. To achieve better things to change the world.

And when I came back to London 5 days later. It set me on a path that lead me to the top of the industry I was in. Mistakes have been made like every human and we know what ended up unfairly happening, but I made things better in many ways. I did what I was sent to do. I changed the world for many people and I’m not done doing it.

I’m still friends with Ceddy, Phil, seatbelt Geoff and the Girlfriend is now my wife and mother of my children.

The message isn’t always obvious but when it comes. Understand it. Embrace it. there is simply no other explanation for what happened.

NONE.

Call it whatever you want in whatever guise you wish it to be. But something is out there. It guides us for reasons we sometimes won’t understand but the bottom line is

God exists. And that is how I know.