I keep being told, “The Jesus Saves Racing team are back on track.”
In one sense that’s true. After thirty three years away the team with a message has returned to the track. But was it ever actually ‘off track’?
The team officially ran for three years (1978-1980) displaying the ‘iconic’ Jesus Saves logo as the primary ‘sponsor’. It seemed like a quick flourish with historic wins in both Formula Ford and Formula 2, and then, as team founder Alex Ribeiro returned to Brazil, it was gone.
However, Jesus Saves Racing had been over ten years in the making as Ribeiro progressed from Brazilian Formula Ford to F1. From the back streets of Brasilia all the way to Grand Prix racing Alex had faithfully carried the Jesus Saves logo on each of his cars.
As the team discussed its return to the track a burning question sparked in my mind – “am I off track?” We were aware that as a team we had not ‘hit the wall’, the trophies proved it, but when people started using the term ‘back on track’ about us I began to fully embrace this idea more as a concept for me. Sometimes we as Christians can actually be ‘off track’ by simply being parked. And sometimes for years.
In a way it can be easier to deal with life’s big ‘in the wall’ moments than with the ‘car park’. Things happen and the carnage needs sorting. Only too painfully our dramatic crises often reveal our damage. It forces us to step up to the consequences on our knees in front of God and fix the carnage around us. Sometimes we are much like the King David who dramatically repented after the fatal ‘roving eye issue’ (2 Samuel 11; Psalm 51). David hit that wall, and we plainly know when we have too. Many of us also know that like David, through our contrite U-turn and “sorry” God gets us moving again.
But if I’m parked do I really need to do that U-turn?
Revelation 3:15 says that God wants us on fire for him. He wants us hot or cold but not lukewarm. When we sit in the ‘car park’ we might feel like we are happening, but actually we are parked and there is no journey. ‘Parked’ is lukewarm, and ‘parked’ is as much use to both us and God as us being stone cold ‘in the wall’.
Jesus Saves Racing is rediscovering momentum, there’s lots to do as we return. We are up for it. We, as a race team, certainly aren’t cold or lukewarm but we do find that in our own Christian journeys there’s always a danger of grinding to a halt by us letting life slow us or stop us. In 2013 the Jesus Saves team are moving back out onto the grid. And this is the deal – to do that ‘car park U-turn’ we all need to be rolling …
The challenge for us is to stay hot, whether that means for us a race team or for us all in our daily walk with Jesus Christ. Our moments of being parked are just as dramatic for God as our moments ‘in the wall’, and they need dealing with in exactly the same way. A Christian journey is just that – a journey, it means movement. Sure, respite is a part of the journey but we all know the difference between a vital pit stop and the ‘car park’.
We are never more on fire than when we are right with both God and each other… because we’re moving.
Please get involved with the ‘Jesus Saves’ team this year as together we build vital momentum …
Alvin Davies is Team Manager and Chaplain of the Jesus Saves Racing Team – jesussavesracing.co.uk
