OK, so you’re in the left of three lanes, and you suddenly notice that your lane is ending due to construction. You start slowing down and quickly look to your right. You see that there’s a car in that lane, but there just happens to be enough room for you to quickly change lanes, so that’s what you do. Quite lucky, and no harm done.
You don’t realize it, but that other driver was looking out for you all the way. He was being a defensive driver. He saw well ahead of time that your lane was ending, and he was preparing to help you, especially if you did anything stupid.
Philippians 2:3 says, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.” That other driver was saying, “You’re more important than me so I’ll let you go first, regardless of how deserving either of you was. If the biblical prophets would have had cars, this would have been called “driving humility,” sort of the opposite of road rage.
But I wonder if this isn’t the way God feels about us all the time. We constantly push our lives at a fast pace, weaving in and out of precarious situations, amazed at how “lucky” we are, when He is right there with us, protecting us and prospering us all the time.