I absolutely love stock car racing, it’s my favourite motorsport and every opportunity I get I head off to the Racewall in Cowdenbeath. However, my ultimate goal is to visit Daytona for the NASCAR Daytona 500 race. NASCAR racing is where a bunch of men and one woman drive really fast in circles around an oval track, driving for miles and getting nowhere with regular crashes into the wall that surrounds the track.
The reason I bring up NASCAR is because I’m thinking NASCAR is the perfect metaphor for how we live our lives today. Our culture actually fuels this race mentality and I don’t see any indication that it’s going to slow down any time soon. We not only live fast, we actually view busy people with a sense of prestige. We value them and we honour them. Within our culture we even greet people with a display of busyness. We say things like, “Are you keeping busy?” As if that’s a honourable thing to do. Busy has become the new normal.
Yet when I talk to people and listen to their pain it always connects with the pace of life that they choose. The number one relational issue I hear is time; People don’t have time for their marriages, they don’t have time for their kids, they don’t have time for friendships and they don’t have time to develop their faith. Busy people often have a lack of personal depth that results in superficial relationships, which results in wounded hearts.
We find ourselves being so busy that we don’t have time, if we’re really honest, for what our heart longs for – the type of people we really want to be and the type of relationships we really want to have.
For those of us who battle busyness, and I am one with you, here’s my defining question: In your NASCAR like lifestyle, where’s Jesus? Is Jesus in the car with you? Is he riding shotgun? Is Jesus in the pit crew helping you speed things up? Or is Jesus in the tower giving you directions for the pedal to the metal to go even faster? Is Jesus in the stands? Is he watching? Or could it be that Jesus is outside the racetrack saying “What you doing in there? You should be away from the NASCAR life style that is wounding your primary relationships.”
I think God’s people are choosing NASCAR lifestyles while at the same time trying to follow a Saviour who walks, who wants us to walk with him not race ahead of him.
Jesus’s words in Matthew 11:28-30 reminds us of this:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Are we busy doing stuff ‘for’ God or are we doing stuff with God? There is a big difference.
What do you really want in your life if you are really honest? It cannot be attained through a NASCAR lifestyle. Perhaps it’s time to get off the racetrack of life and back into the abundant life that Jesus is offering us all, because busyness is a choice.
Busy is an enemy of abundant life, faith and relationships.
Image credit: José Martín
