I have watched recently the response of some competitors when events on the track didn’t go the way they wanted. They responded like a spoiled little child would. You know the response, if I don’t get my way, I am taking my ball and going home. They run away and hide not wanting to take responsibility. What kind of example does that show others? 

There are two choices we can make at the track; respect and responsibility. We can choose to respect other competitors, officials and others in the garage. We also can choose to take responsibility for our actions. Both show signs of maturity, lessons learned. When we choose not to show respect or take responsibility, we regress into that childhood behavior mentality.

Let’s face it, in racing there are going to be good days and bad days. Some days everything is going to fall in place and you will find yourself in Victory Lane. Some days it will seem like everything is going to go against you and the guy that ends up in Victory Lane doesn’t deserve to be there. As one songwriter put it,” Some days are diamonds and some days are stones.” How we respond to the days that fall short of our hopes and dreams reveals how mature we are. It also sets the tone for days to come.

We may not realize it but when we act in a way that doesn’t honor God, we set in motion a path that leads away from Him and His plan for our lives. Think if it this way, good produces good, bad produces bad, good doesn’t come from doing things against God.

Yes, we all know bad things happen to good people. There are many reasons for that, one being, not everyone has your best interest at heart. Most times people are so caught up in themselves that they don’t take the time to think how their actions affect others. When someone acts in a selfish way, good people get collected up and bad things happen. 

We can however still honor God. This just provides another opportunity for us to respond differently than what others might expect. We need to remember who is in control and let God direct us. This is how we display the lessons learned. Think of the example we set for others when we respond in a mature and God honoring way. Here is a passage that will help at times like those;

Matthew 5:43-48, “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy.  But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

We have all seen drivers who drive like no one else in the race matters to them. They drive with one vision, get to the front at all costs. Sometimes they win; sometimes they end up on the hook, wrecker or checkers. But what about the damage and chaos they cause along the way? What about the drivers who are left in the wake of one driver’s immature behavior? Maturity requires that we think about our actions and how they affect those around us. We can’t just run roughshod through life and leave a path of destruction along the way. That does not honor God.

Some of us excuse it if the driver is someone we like. Some of us are disappointed that the driver resorted to bad driving techniques to secure the win. Some just reason it away as good hard racing. We have many ways of looking at it. Let me help you understand something, how you view this goes a long way toward revealing your own maturity level and the lessons you have learned.

Paul, the writer of the Book of Ephesians, challenges us to grow up, become mature in our faith so that we won’t be tossed about, believing anything we hear as the true Word of God. He says;

Ephesians 4:11-16, Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.

Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

We are all teachers and teach by example; our job is to build up the Kingdom of God. We cannot do this if we act like immature children. The goal is that we are mature in the Lord and do our part to make the body of Christ one, whole, healthy, growing and full of love.

There is a danger if we fail to grow up and learn; we will be tossed about, running from here to there not knowing what to believe. Think of a dog chasing his tail, running around and around in circles, he only knows what he is chasing when he catches it, bites it and feels the pain. When we refuse to learn and mature we can be led astray by some fine sounding teaching. 

We are like that dog, chasing after something we believe to be something else, only to catch it and find it is nothing at all. Then we feel the pain of deceitfulness.

Solomon asked God for wisdom to understand all things. God granted that to him. He then set out to determine what was real and worth pursuing. He determined that the pursuit of man’s desires was like “chasing the wind” and that nothing lasting and fulfilling came from those pursuits. You can read his thoughts in the OT book of Ecclesiastes, here is his conclusion;

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14, That’s the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty. God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad. 

We need to mature in our faith, learn and teach about God. We need to have a respect for God that is above everything in our lives. We need to be obedient to His guidance, direction and instructions. Don’t waste away your life living like a little child, tossed here and there, without anything to hold you firmly in place. We need to learn from our mistakes and choose to respect others and take responsibility for our actions.

Until next time, remember God loves you and Jesus is Lord over Auto Racing! God Bless. Remember, that your prayerful support and donations helps us continue this ministry. Thank You.

Changing dance partners is a phrase we hear during the Daytona 500 and during the racing season. It happens when things are not going the way we expected. In the 500 we search for the right combination to get us to the front. During the season, when things aren’t going in the right direction, we switch things around to see if we can find the right combination of people to make the team work better.

Sometimes these changes are peaceful and sometimes there are hard feelings. How is it that something that seemed so right at one point now is all wrong? I think it has to do with human nature and our unwillingness to see things from a different perspective. The teams that are successful are also the most flexible.

Have you ever noticed that some teams are surrounded by change and others stay pretty consistent? In my observation the teams that are the most stable tend to perform the best. The ones that are always changing seem to be in turmoil, they do not have a foundation to hold them. You can look across the sporting world and you can see teams that are successful when the leadership is consistent. When the leader is changing every other week, the performance is lacking.

Take a look at race teams, the ones that are consistent performers are the ones that are less likely to change leadership every year. They have stability and purpose. Jesus helps us understand that we are too quick to change dance partners in life. Whether it be in marriage, friendships or even acquaintances we switch instead of putting forth the effort to build.

For the next four weeks we are going to delve into this last section of The Sermon on the Mount to close out our Winter Bible Study. It is a pretty sweeping realignment of the way we tend to see things so stick with me and we will tackle it together.

Matthew 5:31-6:4,  “It has been said, `Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.

 “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, `Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’ But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your `Yes’ be `Yes,’ and your ‘No be ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

  “You have heard that it was said, `Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

 “You have heard that it was said, `Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

 “Be careful not to do your `acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Looking closely at this passage we can see that it covers many of the ways we deal with others; the way we need to deal with the relationships of life. It starts with the most significant one and goes from there. Let’s spend some time looking at each of them.

A few weeks ago we talked about marriage and the significance of that relationship in God’s eyes. In society today the marriage relationship has become one of convenience. The term irreconcilable differences has grown to mean one or both just do not want to try. That’s not consistent with what Jesus said.

We get into the area of permission and forgiveness here. How many of us took the time to ask God what he thought we should do as it relates to marriage? Did we ask for His direction and guidance before we entered into the most significant relationship we would have here on Earth?

In view of what we see around us, how can we deal with such a high standard? First, remember that God’s standard is the highest and the best. If we can live our lives by God’s standard then we will live the best life possible. Knowing that, we shouldn’t enter into the marriage relationship lightly, we should view it like God does, “until death do we part”. Jesus explains here the only reason to dissolve a marriage is when intimacy is violated, when one or both violate the intimate trust that marriage is built on, unfaithfulness.

Life being what it is we all make choices that do not please God, choices that He would rather we didn’t make. Choices that are not in line with His plan for us. Choices that lead us away from Him.

With those choices come the consequences of living our lives differently than God would want. We cannot go back and remove them, but we can move forward from here and seek God’s direction in the future. The process of getting things back in line is available from God in the form of forgiveness. There is a process that restores our relationship with God.

We first have to admit our mistakes and take responsibility for them. They were our choices not someone else’s. We made them, no one twisted our arm and even if they did, we could have chosen differently.

We then have to go before God and seek His forgiveness. He promises to forgive us giving us the freedom so we can move forward in our lives recommitted to following His direction. We can because of the sacrifice Jesus made for our sins on the cross. We have hope even when we make the wrong choice. That hope is Jesus Christ.

As we start down this road of getting the relationships in our life in line with God; I think a good place to start is at the foot of the cross. Take some time this week and sit there. Open your heart and ask for His forgiveness. Acknowledge what Christ did for us, receive it and start life anew, restored and useful to God.

Matthew 6: 7-8 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Until next time, remember God loves you and Jesus is Lord over Auto Racing! God Bless. Remember, that your prayerful support and donations helps us continue this ministry. Thank Yo