I watched in amazement as rescue workers pulled 19 year old Jakub Maly from a seven foot deep sand pit on a beach in South Florida.  The video showed Maly being pulled from the pit after a two hour rescue by over sixty workers.

Maly and the remainder of the Austrian Olympic Swim team took advantage of a rare day off from training camp to go to the beach. Like many people who go to the beach, Maly dug a hole in the sand.

But this was no sand castle. Maly spent most of his day digging a hole 7 feet deep.  After spending most of the day digging the hole, Maly finished his masterpiece and dropped his shovel.  He then jumped into the hole.  Immediately, the walls of the sand pit collapsed around him.

Maly was covered up to his neck in sand.   He later admitted that he panicked, causing the sand to cover his head.  Only the swift work of his teammates preserved his life.  As the rescue workers arrived, his teammates kept the sand from his head.  Even then, the weight of the sand made it difficult to breath.  After two hours, the rescue workers pulled Jakub Maly from the sand.

Isn’t it amazing how often we are our own worst enemy?  Thinking that we are making harmless decisions, we dig a hole for ourselves that we can’t overcome.