There are moments in life when you look back and wonder:
How in the world did I get out of that?
I've had more of those moments than I probably care to admit.
Some were accidents. Some were circumstances beyond my control.
And some were simply the result of me doing something that, looking back, wasn't very smart.
One of those happened here on the farm.
I was working with the backhoe near the pond when the rear tires started sliding toward the deep end.
If you've ever felt several tons of equipment begin moving somewhere you absolutely don't want it to go, you know how quickly the world can slow down.
There wasn't time to stop and make a plan.
I swung the rear bucket over the edge of the pond and planted it, using it to support the backhoe and keep it from sliding farther.
Then we were able to use the dozer to drag the machine back onto solid ground.
Afterward, people gave me credit.
"That was some quick thinking."
"Good thing you knew what to do."
And maybe experience played a part.
But I remember that moment differently.
My hands were on the controls.
But I believe God was guiding them.
Because when I look back over my life, that isn't the only time I've walked away from something thinking, That could have ended very differently.
There have been close calls.
Bad decisions.
Risks I probably shouldn't have taken.
Moments when confidence crossed the line into foolishness.
And somehow, I'm still here.
We talk a lot about God's protection when something happens to us.
But what about God's protection when the danger is something we got ourselves into?
That's a different kind of grace.
The Bible is filled with imperfect people who made bad decisions. Peter acted before thinking. David made choices with devastating consequences. Jonah deliberately went the wrong direction.
God didn't approve of their foolishness.
But He didn't abandon them in it either.
And that's something I'm increasingly grateful for.
God's grace doesn't mean there aren't consequences for our decisions. And trusting God certainly isn't permission to intentionally take foolish risks.
But sometimes His mercy meets us right in the middle of a mess of our own making.
Sometimes He provides a way out.
Sometimes He puts the right person nearby.
Sometimes He gives us a thought at exactly the right second.
And sometimes He guides a pair of hands sitting on the controls of a backhoe that's sliding toward the bottom of a pond.
The older I get, the less credit I want to take for some of the things I've survived.
People may call it experience.
They may call it instinct.
They may call it luck.
I call a lot of it grace.
There are probably dangers God protected me from that I never even knew existed.
And there are others where I saw the danger clearly—usually about two seconds after I had created it.
So these days, when I think about God's blessings, I don't just thank Him for what He's given me.
I thank Him for what He prevented.
For the accidents that didn't happen.
For the mistakes that weren't fatal.
For the bad decisions that didn't become permanent disasters.
And yes...
I thank God for protecting me from my own stupidity.
Maybe that's one of the most overlooked forms of grace.
Not that God keeps us from ever doing something foolish.
But that sometimes, when we do, His hand is still there.
Even when ours are the ones on the controls.