Driving Sideways

-Nascar.com

I'll admit, when I was a kid, I watched NASCAR races for two reasons, and two reasons only: (1) To watch Richard Petty win, and (2) to see spectacular crashes. You see, stock cars are designed to fly apart during crashes in order to protect the driver. Thus, NASCAR crashes usually are spectacular sights. Since then, however, my NASCAR fascination has become a little more nuanced.

Unlike other forms of racing, stock cars used in NASCAR races are heavily regulated to keep the cars performing at the same level. That way, the contest is not machine vs. machine, but rather racer vs. racer. While there are tweaks that can legally be made to stock cars (wedge, tire pressure, etc), by and large most stock cars perform at the same level.

Therefore, to win in NASCAR, you have to be a skilled driver, and perform consistently on the track. Thus racers log hours on the track, training how to properly drive the car, learning which lines are the best to follow, developing reactionary skills in emergency situations, learning to draft, and learning when to follow the line, and when to make a move.

The problem is, no matter how hard you train, with 39 other stock car drivers on the track, you cannot control everything that happens. All it takes is a simple bump on your inside rear quarter panel to upend your day. When that bump happens, the car is turned sideways on the track. It's a harrowing experience, but the well-trained driver calmly steers into the skid, straightening the car out as if drifts down onto the apron. Heart pounding and heavy breathing ensues as the driver comes to grips with what has happened as the rest of the field speeds past him.

At this point, the driver has two options. He can either head to the pits to compose himself and let the pit crew give his car a once-over, or he can accelerate and get back on the track. The former option will all but take the driver out of the race, as he'll be a lap down. The latter will keep him on the lead lap, even if he has been relegated to the back of the pack. Still, the latter option requires ambition, drive, and nerves of steal.

My point in talking NASCAR with you today is that life is a lot like a NASCAR race. Perhaps you have trained hard through Bible study, secular education, and vocational training. You have a career goal, a solid spiritual life, qualifications, and are building experience that will take you far in life. In that regard, you are like that well-trained NASCAR driver who has read the training manual, and gotten the hands-on experience to run the race.

Regardless of preparation and education, however, no one is ever in full control of their lives. Just as a bump to the rear quarter panel can send a stock car into a spin, a bump in the real world can send your life into a spin as well. It looks different for all of us. Some of our bumps merely put us into a skid that lands us safely on the apron. It's a setback, but we are still on the lead lap, and are still in the race. Others experience a more devastating sequence. Perhaps our metaphorical stock car has been spun into the wall, or perhaps we've collided with another stock car.

These metaphorical bumps, skids, spins and crashes look different for each individual. Whether it be a divorce, terminated employment, a financial crisis, a medical condition, natural disaster, or the death of a loved one, a bump on the track can temporarily knock us out of the running. The question is, whether you are the type of driver that gets back into the race, or heads to the pits.

2013 was a year that saw my life sent into a skid. I'm going to be transparent with you, and tell you that I battle depression. At least, that's what I think it is. I've never had it diagnosed, and I am not interested in medicating it. My emotional problems stem from Spiritual problems in my life, with which I am learning that everyone struggles. Still, 2013 saw some bumps that sent my proverbial stock car into a skid.

Funding for Grace Pointe fell off, as did Sunday offerings. The church has not operated in the black for months. Also, attendance at Grace Pointe has fallen off, due partly to members moving out of town, but also due partly to mission-fatigue. To top all that off, over the summer, I was faced with hostility that forced me to find a different job, and once I was settled into that new job, my grandfather (who raised me) passed away. At least we were able to say good-bye, first.

That's not to say there weren't high points. My new job is co-hosting a morning talk show on KXYL. I mean, really, who wouldn't want to do talk radio for a living? The Southwest Association continues to support Grace Pointe. The Missionary Baptist Association of Texas contributed $15,000 toward Grace Pointe's building fund. The American Baptist Association meeting in Dallas was a blast, and I am getting the blessing of being able to show a group of foster kids a whole new way to live. Oh, and we got a Nintendo Wii for Christmas, and I am enjoying Mario Cart.

Still, human nature is (or at least, my human nature is) to allow the bad to take hold of your mind, and drown out the good. Six years ago, I resigned Denson Springs Missionary Baptist Church to move to Brownwood, and plant a new Missionary Baptist Church here. My goal was for the church to be self-supporting by 2011, and sending out missionaries by 2014. Neither goal is going to materialize, and I have found myself wondering if I have done something wrong.

Enter my wife Jessica, who uses the object lesson of our relationship with our children to illustrate why things seem so distant between me and God lately. The problem is that I allow the trials of life to outshine God's blessings in my life. In short, I have not been thankful. The lesson that God has been teaching me over the course of the past year, that I think I am just now learning, is that my focus needs to come off of the good and the bad, and just be on God. I need to delight in the Lord, joyfully receive His blessings, trust Him during the "bumps," and continue doing what He has called me to do.

With that in mind, my resolve is to be the driver that, once he finds himself on the apron of the track, accelerates and steers back into the race. God has called me to Brownwood-Early. He has called me to launch this church, and He has called this church to publicly proclaim the Word of God. With His help in 2014, we will obey His calling. And with your prayers and encouragement, I am going to learn to rest and delight in the Lord, to trust Him, and then to obey Him.

Have you been bumped into a spin this year? If so, how did you recover? And how are you planning on getting back into your race?

Psalm 37:4-8 Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. 5 Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. 6 And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. 7 Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. 8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.