Grace and a Wrecked Four Wheeler

Speaking of grace, if I could tell only one story about my friend Scott Weston, it would be this one—it’s outrageous.

Our family had two, very used four wheelers on our little farm that we rode around the place and in the nearby Ozark National Forest. Scott and his family enjoyed these versatile and fun little machines too, and he asked me to recommend one. Soon the family owned a new 300 Suzuki Quad, one of the finest little ATVs ever made.

One beautiful fall day, I borrowed Scott’s almost-new four wheeler to take our pastor’s son Benjamin on a ride in the national forest. After a beautiful day and successful adventure, we were driving home out of the mountains on a steep curving highway, and the unthinkable happened. Going around a curve to our right at about 50 miles per hour, I happened to glance in my rearview mirror and saw Scott’s new, green, pristine four wheeler fly off the trailer and disappear over the embankment and into the trees below. It was a very shocking, sickening, surreal feeling.

I got our truck and 16-foot trailer stopped on the shoulder of the highway. Then Ben and I jogged back up the hill to see what had happened to Scott’s machine. I knew it wasn’t good. It had stopped on its side at the edge of the trees after rolling or tumbling several times down the steep embankment. We turned it over on its wheels and hoped to drive it back up to the trailer, if it would start. But the key was missing. After a brief search, Ben miraculously found it in the tall grass beside the highway. It started and wobbled back to the truck on bent rims and a twisted frame, then climbed the ramp back onto the trailer.

I called the service manager at the Suzuki dealership and told her I had a 911 case I was bringing in. She said they would have their triage team ready. I dropped Ben off and headed over there. She came out with a box of tissues for me, and after seeing it wobble off the trailer pronounced it, “Totaled.”

I was taught by my father that whenever you borrowed something, you must return it in as good or better condition than when you borrowed it. I also was taught that people were more important than things. That material possessions were only wood, hay, and stubble—or in this case, steel, rubber, and plastic. I simply had to buy Scott a new four wheeler, after a sincere apology for destroying his. It was only right. It was a good chunk of money, but I would do it, whatever it was.

He was gracious when I told him, and not visibly upset, even though I knew he had come to really like that machine. I told him of my plan to shop for that exact same model, and make sure that it was agreeable to him before I bought it. He nodded his head in agreement.

But when I took Scott to see the four wheeler I found, he said it was fine and then quickly started writing a check for it on the sale manager’s desk. By that time I had my checkbook out and exclaimed, “What are you doing!?” “I’m buying this four wheeler.” “No, you’re not! That’s not right! And not what we agreed!”

By this time, we were bumping each other away from the desk in a scuffle while writing our checks, and knocked a pen holder off of the sales manager’s table, scattering pens and pencils across the floor. “Why don’t one of you buy me a four wheeler?” the sales manager exclaimed, with an incredulous grin on his face.

Scott had a head start and finished writing his check first, even with the scuffling, and handed it to the sales manger. A bit embarrassed by the whole scene, I said, “Well OK, for now, but this is not going to stand! It’s just not right! I ruined your new four wheeler, and I’m going to replace it!” The two of them just smiled at me and shrugged their shoulders as I bent down and started picking up pens off the floor.

A few weeks passed, as I thought about the situation and how I could make Scott take my money. Then one day I was at my parents home, visiting with my brother. I told him the whole story ending with, “And he wants to pay for the four wheeler—for my mistake!?” My brother quickly piped up, “Well, you’re not gonna let him, are you!?” At that moment, some clarity, humility, wonder, and grace flooded over me. It was something that transcends common sense and what’s right. And for the first time, I had the thought, and voiced it to my brother, “I think I am.”

Grace is hard to understand, and hard to deal with. I don’t think we really do until it comes our way, face-to-face, or heart-to- heart. Grace and mercy seem connected, but they are distinct—two different things. The best definitions I’ve heard are these. Mercy is not getting something bad that you deserve. Grace is getting something good that you don’t deserve. Grace is more about the giver than the recipient. Scott really wanted to pay the price for my mistake and bless me. I could continue to resist due to pride or what’s right. Or, I could accept his gracious, loving, extraordinary gift, and the heart and mind and soul behind it. Next to the Lord Jesus, Scott taught me and modeled for me the biggest lesson on grace I ever received. It changed me. It opened doors for me that I continue to walk through, and hopefully help others walk through. That is the nature of GRACE. That is the soul of my treasured friend Scott Weston. I miss him.

Last Words

If I were asked to say or read something at Scott’s graveside or celebration-of-life service, it would probably be this:

“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

If Scott were to choose or write something as his epitaph, it would be something like John wrote as his motive for writing his Gospel:

“But these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31).

I guess that’s where Scott learned about GRACE. It changed him, like it changes everyone. And those who know Scott best know it was the most important thing in his life.

Rest in peace, Scott Weston. I’ll see you in the morning. You were a true and beautiful friend, and will be forever. I am blessed.

“Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love,

but a faithful man who can find?” (Proverbs 20:6 ESV)

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)