Sports Spectrum

Have you ever hung out in the garage area at a NASCAR race?

If you have, you understand this statement: Those boys sure do love to tinker!

Whenever I’ve nosed around all those cars, I’ve been impressed with all the fussing, fidgeting, manipulating, and worrying that goes into getting the cars ready for the race.

The crews change tires like we change stations on the car radio. And it doesn’t take much more than a whim for them to replace the whole engine—as late as a half-hour before the race.

They aren’t satisfied to take the car that qualified two days earlier and park it until the race begins. Not even the crew with the fastest qualifying time is happy. They adjust and tinker till the last second.

There’s a valuable principle behind this. As I think about how much more relaxing it would be for a crew to be satisfied with the car and pull up a chair for a nap, I think of how often we as followers of Jesus do just that.

It happens when we decide to let things stay as they are spiritually, perhaps thinking we’re ready to face the world. Or we grow too busy because of a long list of activities.

NASCAR crews are relentless in their effort to make things better. We should have the same dedication in our effort to develop a closer relationship with God. We can do that by doing what the pros do. Create a checklist that we go over each day, asking ourselves about our prayer life, our relationships, and our outreach.

If we do that, we can really see things move fast.