Unshackled Moments ~ October 2 ~ Don't Race Solo

NASCAR racers may seem like they have a pretty easy task. All they have to do is drive around in an oval and  all their turns are in the same direction. I used to hate NASCAR for much this reason. It seemed boring and pointless to watch people driving in circles, and like  many, I only wanted to see the wrecks. But the reason that wrecks are common is that there are more dangers in the race than are obvious.  The truth is  that there is  a lot of strategy involved in a race to position the driver in a place where they can safely finish the race and  do so in such a way as to come to the end as close to being the winner as possible.

If a driver attempts to make those decisions on their own they can get into trouble fast. The driver simply can't see everything they need to know, and he can't make  the mechanical adjustment s that need to be made. But the driver is not alone. There is a pit crew that changes the tires, keeps the car fueled up, makes minor mechanical adjustments to keep the car running its best. And there are spotters seated high above the track. The spotters can see what is happening in front, behind and around the driver they are helping. The tell the driver when they need to slow or speed up, when to go high on the track or low. When something dangerous has occurred or is developing.  Without the spotter, the driver can only perceive a small portion of what is going on around them, and at close to 200 mph, that is a very dangerous situation indeed.

We are running a race, and life is going by fast. No matter how skilled we are, no matter how wise, we can't do it ourselves. We need our spotter, the Holy Spirit, to guide us safely through the dangers and obstacles of life. And we need a pit crew, others who can help keep us going. And though we are driving in our race, we can't just drive through life. We become pit crew for other drivers, helping with encouragement, support and prayer.  Running around our track, it's easy to get caught up in the race and what's going on around us and forget that we're not alone. After all, there's no one in the car with us. But today let us remember that as fast as life goes by, we were never meant to run our race ourselves and that we are called to help others run theirs.