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In this day of political
correctness, some folks may wonder
why I've decided to post this
message from a pastor on my secular
website. It's because it has special
meaning to me and if it touches you
too, I'm glad. - Reg
“Running the Race”
II Timothy 4:6-8, I Corinthians 9:24-27
May 21, 2006
First Presbyterian Church Carson City
Purpose: For people to realize the need and benefit of and for
preparing to continually grow in following Jesus Christ all the
way to the finish line.
In May of 1971, 35 years ago last week I rode in my first
motorcycle road race on a paved racetrack in Carlsbad,
California. I’d never seen a road race before, but I knew I
wanted to do it. I’d read about it. I’d watched movies. I’d
talked to people about it, but I knew that wasn’t enough. I knew
I had to participate. I realized as I circulated around Sears
Point raceway this past week that you can take the boy out of
the race but your can’t take the race out of the boy. So it is
with our Christian journey. There comes a point we know we have
to get out on the track and participate. Watching just doesn’t
cut it!
If you know me at all you know how much I appreciate metaphors;
how one part of life reflects another. And I know that many of
you who so generously made it possible for me to attend
motorcycle dream school this week want to know how it was. So if
you’ll permit me I’d like to draw a line between these
scriptures and the experience I had on the track.
When I was 17 I wanted very much to race motorcycles. It was a
passion that stirred within me. I took it very seriously. I put
myself under the tutelage and mentoring of two of the finest men
the sport has known. I was blessed to have their willingness to
help. I sought to learn all I could about what it takes to be a
successful racer. I invested whatever I could afford of time and
money to gain the ability to do well. More than for a trophy or
acclaim, the perishable wreath Paul describes, I wanted to do
well because at that point it felt like that’s what I was made
for. To borrow from Eric Liddell’s words in “Chariots of Fire” I
had a sense that God had given me an ability, and when I did it
well I could feel his pleasure. My desire was that whatever
success I had on the track would bring glory to God. As
Christians this is our calling; that whatever we can be good at
we should do it to our utmost for God’s highest; with a delight
that when we are being whoever we are…a parent, a worker, a
servant, a leader, a follower, it is all so that people may see
Jesus Christ.
I suspect that this attitude lead me off the track and into
preparation for ministry. But I’ve never let go of the
connection between the ministry and motorcycling. My high school
yearbook says I had two desires and in this order, “To win lives
for Christ and to beat Dick Mann at Sears Point Raceway.” I
never got to ride at Sears Point until this week. I have been
blessed to become friends with Dick Mann, perhaps the greatest
racer who ever lived. But most significantly I have been given
the opportunity to show people on to the track of following
Jesus Christ and how to run the only race that really matters.
Let me tell you how my time at motorcycle school reinforced this
for me this week. First of all, it was a school. It wasn’t just,
“Pay your money and go out on the track.” This was a time of
learning what it really takes to perform at the best level. So
it is with our Christian journey. It is not a “Do it yourself
course”. To follow Jesus means to enroll in the school of
Christian discipleship where we are instructed. In motorcycle
school I was instructed by the best teacher there is, Reg
Pridmore. He’s won national championships. He’s been teaching
people how to get around the racetrack for 20 years. And he’s
still faster in his 60’s around the track with someone on the
back of his motorcycle than everyone else is riding solo.
Jesus is our teacher. He’s done more than win national
championships; he’s overcome the world. And he is faster and
better at LIFE with all of us on HIS BACK than any of us is on
our own!
On Sunday evening when we arrived at the hotel that was
headquarters for the school a flood of memories washed over me.
It was like the first time I pulled into the pits at Carlsbad.
There were some of the finest motorcycles I’ve ever seen, all
perfectly prepared. And the following morning in the pits at
Sears Point the riders were equally prepared and ready to learn.
The first step in preparation for the class is to take the rear
view mirrors off the motorcycle. Reg says, “You don’t need to
see where you’ve been. You already know that. In fact you should
look at the ground directly in front of you because you’re
already passing it. Look beyond the turn to the next turn and be
ready. You’ll get to the same turn again or one just like it and
you’ll have a chance then to try it again. There is no point in
looking back.” This is the primary step in being ready for the
race. In faith and in racing motorcycles as in so much of the
rest of life preparation is the key. We need to be ready. And
the key to being ready is to be constantly learning.
I have to admit I was a little apprehensive about re-entering
this chapter of life. I mean, I know I’m a safe rider, and
reasonably capable on a mountain road, but this was Sears Point
and the point was not an absent-minded Sunday ride in the
country. This was serious business. But once I got signed in I
knew I was where I belonged. The same is true in faith. Once we
realize there is so much more to learn we will COMMIT ourselves
to signing up and showing up to be trained in the Master’s
classroom. And we will know we are where we belong.
We began in the classroom, not on the track. This is where Jesus
started the disciples. It is where Jesus starts us. Worship is
the classroom. Bible study is the classroom. Fellowship groups
are the classroom and they are all essential to our being
prepared to go with Jesus.
Once I sat down in the classroom and started listening it all
started to come back, just like that first rider’s meeting in
the pits at Carlsbad before the first practice session. And the
first thing Reg told us was, “This is not a race school. It is
not primarily about making you fast, though you’ll find at the
end you are faster. This is about making you smooth and
confident and the best way to learn this is to slow down to go
fast.”
Does this make sense to you? It could be counter-intuitive I
know. I know when you put 70 men (and four women) on a racetrack
with high performance motorcycles the idea of going slow and
letting the other guy go doesn’t work well at first. WE WANT TO
WIN! WE DON’T WANT THAT OTHER GUY TO SHOW US HOW IT’S DONE!! The
problem is that on the track and in life we too often have a
size ten hand for turning the throttle and a size two head for
learning what to do with what we’ve got. I was a victim of my
own in this regard on Monday and I am in life. As much as I know
as a Christian that I have to slow down to go fast; as much as I
know I need to ride my ride, not someone else’s, I still want to
get ahead NOW. I want to pass that guy even though I don’t know
where he is going and I don’t know who he is and what abilities
he has. What I needed to learn Monday is what I need to learn
everyday and that is to follow the leader and ride/live the life
Jesus has set before me. I need to choose to choose his way.
It is interesting in the opening session that one of the first
rules that is gone over emphatically and that no one argues
about; no one has a problem with anyone getting asked to leave
the class for – and that is never try to go the opposite
direction on the track! In faith we need to learn the same; that
when the Master tells us the right direction we can’t question
it for a second; we can’t say, “Well times have changed and
there are exceptions.” If we said this in track school we’d
laugh or take the guy’s keys away, but we’d never say, “Well
maybe he’s got a point.” This is what Paul means when he says,
“…I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to
others I myself should not be disqualified.”
There is so much I could tell you about these passages and the
connection to learning to ride a motorcycle and living the
Christian life, but the key is learning that the learning never
ends, that the learning is for living; that it is hard, but
delightful, and that to do it well we each must ride the ride
Jesus has set before us. Paul is not being inconsistent in
saying that only one gets the prize in I Corinthians and then
urging everyone to keep faithful because all who do receive
God’s reward because it is in the participating in the race that
we win in Christ. The discipline of which he speaks in I
Corinthians is what qualifies us. It is when we give up that we
lose. The key to Christian victory is in the on-going journey of
faithfulness; running the race that each of us is called to run.
We are not competing against one another but against the part of
our spirit that says, “Quit”.
I know it’s hard. I’m out here living this life, running this
race with you. I know that both days in school there were many
times I thought, “This is too much all at once, I want to quit
for today. But you know what was great? When I got up and rode
one more circuit and realized I was getting it.
Let me take you to the finish line with this. Each day began
with a session of following the instructor for a few laps and
then we were turned loose. At first I kept trying to go too
fast; to keep up with others rather riding the things I knew
THAT I NEEDED TO WORK ON. But the second day in the morning
after playing follow the leader I found myself with no riders
around me for several laps and I started to slow down and ride
the way I knew I needed to. And I started going faster! After
awhile Derek, an instructor came around me and motioned for me
to tag along behind him. I did and he would look back every few
turns and give me a thumbs up. After the session he said, “You
know what impressed me most about your riding? You look relaxed.
You are riding your ride. Keep going.”
That’s what Jesus wants to do for you. He wants to come around
you and have you tag along behind him. He wants to look back and
give you the thumbs up. He wants you to be able to say, “I have
fought the good fight, I have kept the faith, I have finished
the race.” And he wants to say to you, “You looked really
relaxed out there. You were riding the ride I created you to
ride. Keep going.”
May we all continually run the race keeping our eyes on Jesus.
And as the world challenges us to do it differently may we hear
him saying to us, “Keep going, look beyond, the turn, don’t look
back you’ve already been there, the prize is up ahead and riding
with me is all the prize you need.” Amen.
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