“I could be taking a dirt nap right now, but God let me live. God had plans for me.”

Those are the words of Noah Dettore, a 26-year-old member at Grace, Flint, Mich., as he reflects on the car accident that almost claimed his life two years ago. Although it has been a long, hard road, Noah says the accident changed his life—in a good way.

The wake-up call

Noah says that his life before the accident wasn’t exactly God-pleasing. “I hadn’t really been going to church before,” he remembers. “And I used to be addicted to cocaine and stuff. It was horrible. I think God used the crash to save me from dying from a drug overdose.”

What Noah refers to as his “wake-up call” happened on Feb. 22, 2007. He was on his way to Saginaw to visit his father, who’d just undergone quadruple bypass heart surgery. Noah was driving over a bridge when he hit a Michigan DOT vehicle. The impact sent his truck flying end over end—Noah says it flew about the length of a football field—before it went off the bridge and fell about 450 feet.

Noah’s injuries were life threatening. In fact, at the scene of the accident, he says that rescue workers thought they’d lost him twice. Noah was rushed to the hospital where his family kept vigil at his side. “They were all convinced Noah was going to die that night,” says Walter Oelhafen, the pastor at Grace who was at the hospital ministering to the Dettores. “They were talking about his funeral.” But by God’s grace, Noah pulled through.

Everyone thanked God that Noah’s life was spared, but for Noah the struggle had just begun. “Well, I just remember waking up, and I understood that I was in an accident and that I was in the hospital,” says Noah. But after learning about the extent of his injuries—including the very real possibility that he may never walk again—Noah says he took the news pretty hard: “At first I was thinking about suicide.”

Oelhafen remembers ministering to Noah in those dark hours. “Noah just felt so guilty,” he says. “He thought that life was just over for him, that God couldn’t or wouldn’t forgive him for the things he’d done.” But Oelhafen says he pointed Noah to the cross to help him see the full and free forgiveness that is ours through Jesus and the hope and comfort it brings. He also reminded Noah that his life wasn’t over—and that he could make a different in other peoples’ lives too.