Who knows?

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Do you ever stop to think about what God saves you from?

I think it's a good thing to reflect on, which I was just doing.  God saves me from a lot.  A Facebook post a friend shared today reminded me of just one story:  

We were on our way to Paris for the weekend when we were TDY to Germany.  We decided to stay in Germany at Spangdahlem AB as a kind of half way point for a couple of nights.  On-base billeting is a lot less expensive than a hotel in Paris and we were asked to return a piece of equipment to the base that was borrowed by the base we were at for a time (the why involves a deadly airplane crash, which is a story for another time).

We found ourselves at the NCO club that Friday night, and as things go in my life, this woman comes in with a friend and sits down next to us.  I learned a bar rule very early in life:  never ask the woman next to you to dance because if she says no, then you gotta sit there and feel stupid all night.  Anyway, at the time I was married so there was zero chance I was asking anybody to do anything.  But she started chatting with me.

Apparently, I'm easy to talk to.  So this woman, over the course of the next 3 hours begins to tell me her entire life story and makes it abundantly clear to me that she hates men and then told me how her ex was abusive and this and that.  We had to get an early start the next day, so we left before closing time and I kid you not, these are the words she said to me as we left:

"Are you gonna be here tomorrow night?"

I got sick as a dog the next morning and had to have the guys pull over so I didn't get sick in the car.  I got yelled at for it, but hey, curve or no curve, it was gonna be bad if they didn't.  On the outskirts of Paris, I got elected to drive in the city, which took a year off my life, I'm sure...but that's a different story for another time, too.

Needless to say, I didn't go back the next night and I've been thankful for that ever since it happened.  Just another time when I don't know what would have happened, but I know for certain what did happen because I wasn't where I shouldn't have been.  

I think God is in the midst of those little moments in our lives.  In the delays, in the detours, in the things that didn't happen.  I think those are little blessings in life that this side of heaven, we probably don't understand the full effect of.

I'm thankful for those moments, especially lately.  Sometimes, staying on course isn't easy.  But I've learned that disobedience is far, far worse.

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