Starting Well—The Race of Life:
Introduction
Racing, Dale Earnhardt once said, is life. Well, Earnhardt actually had it backward. Life is a race. Racing to work, racing home, racing to some type of sports practice, racing to recreational activities, racing to church. Racing here there and yonder. Life is always filled with excitement, twists and turns, spills and thrills, and yes, the occasional blow-out. You never know what’s going to happen next. Even when there’s nothing going on really, we’re just making laps, that’s like a race, too. Yeah, in NASCAR, the drivers may go for laps and laps and laps with no cautions, no red flags, just running around in circles. Who among us hasn’t felt like we were running around in circles at times? All of us. We wonder, “Will I ever make it to the finish line?” Or, “Am I running well?” Or, “Why did I have such a bad start?”
Every racer knows that the key to winning is starting well, running well, staying out of trouble, and being around at the end to finish strong. This sermon series is designed to help us accomplish all those things so we can look expectantly toward the finish line of life. One key to a good race is starting well. That’s what we want to talk about today as we get ready to take the green flag in the race of life.
NASCAR started in the 1950’s when a bunch a moon-shiners tried to out-do one another as they souped up their cars to make them go faster than the police who were chasing them. A guy by the name of Bill France came up with the idea of getting these guys to start racing one another to see whose car was fastest. He set up a sanctioning body to govern the competition, and thus NASCSR was born. The sport has grown tremendously
Teamwork
It's those stately geese I find especially impressive. Winging their way to a warmer climate, they often cover thousands of miles before reaching their destination. Have you ever studied why they fly as they do? It is fascinating to read what has been discovered about their flight pattern as well as their in-flight habits. Four come to mind.
1. Those in front rotate their leadership. When one lead goose gets tired, it changes places with one in the wing of the V-formation and another flies point.
2. By flying as they do, the members of the flock create an upward air current for one another. Each flap of the wings literally creates an uplift for the bird immediately following. One author states that by flying in a V-formation, the whole flock gets 71 percent greater flying range than if each goose flew on its own.
3. When one goose gets sick or wounded, two fall out of formation with it and follow it down to help and protect it. They stay with the struggler until it's able to fly again.
4. The geese in the rear of the formation are the ones who do the honking. I suppose it's their way of announcing that they're following and that all is well. For sure, the repeated honks encourage those in front to stay at it. As I think about all this, one lesson stands out above all others: it is the natural instinct of geese to work together. Whether it's rotating, flapping, helping, or simply honking, the flock is in it together...which enables them to accomplish what they set out to do.
Chuck Swindoll, letter, October, 1991.
Preparation
Preparation is about priorities. Knowing what’s important before the race begins. To prepare for the next race, the teams look at all the data from the previous races, especially any races they have run at the particular track they are running at today. What were the previous lap times? How did we run here last time? They know what equipment they will need, and have it loaded on trailers before they ever leave the race shop. They carry a back-up car in case their primary car should crash out. They have several engines, transmissions, and various and sundry automotive parts hoping against hope that they will never need them. But they are prepared for any situation that arises.
The writer to the Hebrews gives us advice about how to prepare for the race of life. He says to lay aside every weight. The type of weight the author is talking about here is not necessarily bad or evil. It is anything that diverts our attention from the task at hand. But then he adds, “especially the sin that so easily ensnares us.” Sin will always divert our attention from the main thing. Unfortunately, sin can become the priority in our lives. It can consume us, overwhelm us, and eventually overtake us. Sin will destroy our lives, our families, our careers. We must deal with the sin in our lives to run the race of life well. In preparation for the race we have to get our priorities in order.
In recent years a head coach divorced his wife of 26 years when he left coaching a college team to become head coach in the National Football League. He said he needed a wife while coaching on the college level for social functions and to show families that he would be looking out for their sons. In pro football, however, she was an unnecessary accouterment and a distraction to winning. He said winning football was his number one priority and his two sons second. How tragic!
In contrast to this, Tom Landry, former coach of the Dallas cowboys said, "The thrill of knowing Jesus is the greatest thing that ever happened to me ... I think God has put me in a very special place, and He expects me to use it to His glory in everything I do ... whether coaching football or talking to the press, I'm always a Christian ... Christ is first, family second and football third."
Source Unknown.
What are some of the weights that slow us down?
Endurance
Another key to starting well in the race of life is knowing we are in it for the long haul. Most NASCSR races are 500 milers. 500 miles is a long way in anyone’s book, and so a driver and the team must prepare itself mentally and physically to go the distance. How good would it be if the driver couldn’t complete the race? What if the pit crew suddenly decided that they were too tired to change the tires, or the crew chief was too tired to comprehend all the events taking place around him or her? It would lead to disaster for the team, and the driver would fail.
One of the keys to finishing a 500 mile race is well-timed pit stops. Crew chiefs have their computers and calculators they use to figure gas mileage and lap times, fuel consumption and so forth. They have to know when to stop so their driver can finish the next segment of the race. They need to know about what their fuel mileage is going into the race, what the tires will likely do, and so on. So they can know whether to change two tires or four. All the tremendous preparation that goes on before and during the race is so the driver can be certain of completing the 500 miles. But one will never complete the race without the well-timed pit stop. The pit stops allow the driver to endure.
We need pit stops, too. Times of refreshing, times of re-filling the tanks. We need a Sabbath rest. A time to take a cool drink. One of the practical ways to do that is to take a retreat of some type. Manreesa, a silent retreat………….Walk to Emmaus, a men’s or women’s retreat………..Cursillo, a co-ed spiritual retreat………..Chrysalis or Happening, a teen retreat……….many other ways. Time to refresh and renew, so we can endure the laps ahead and make it to the finish line. We are in the race for the long haul. Are we ready to endure those twists and unexpected turns?
Focus
A final key to starting well the race of life is to be focused. A driver in NASCAR has to have tremendous focus. Focus for a driver is about finding their line on the race track. Identifying that place on the track where his/her car will run fastest. And finding their line, hitting their marks on the track to maintain their line. The track, the car, the race becomes their focus. Not the roar of the crowd, not even the roar of the engines. Their only focus is what is happening around them on the track when the green flag drops.
The writer to the Hebrews says our focus in the race of life is Jesus Christ. He is the author and finisher of our faith. The passage in my translation says, “on whom our faith depends from start to finish.” Do we want to start well? Do we want to run well? Do we want to finish the race of life well? We will do it as we focus on Jesus Christ. He becomes our example and our motivation for running the race.
The motivation for any NASCAR driver, for any racer, is to win. First place is the only place, second place, as Dale Earnhardt used to say is simply the first loser. But it is not about winning for the Christian. That sounds strange, doesn’t it? It is about finishing. To finish is to win in the race of life, and we begin the race of life with the end in sight, and the focus is not to get to heaven, but to live a Christ-like life. Our motivation is Jesus himself. To know what He has done, and to know we have the power of His Holy Spirit to carry us through. We run because Jesus ran, and because he still runs with us.
One of the interesting things about NASCAR racing is that they have in the industry what are called “spotters.” Spotters sit or stand high atop the race track, watching all the action. These spotters are in constant radio contact with the driver to alert them to any impending danger the driver may not be able to see, or to let them know that they are clear to move up or down the race track to pass another car, or to tell them to go high or low to avoid trouble ahead. The spotter helps the driver to focus on the race. Our spotter is the Holy Spirit, who speaks into our hearts calling us, encouraging us, and yes, warning us, letting us know that he runs with us. All we need do is focus on Jesus.
Conclusion
The Greeks had a race in their Olympic games that was unique. The winner was not the runner who finished first. It was the runner who finished with his torch still lit. I want to run all the way with the flame of my torch still lit for Him.
J. Stowell, Fan The Flame, Moody, 1986, p. 32.
