Ark Valley News - Hope and hilarity

Hope and hilarity
By Chuck Terrill
Last Updated: July 15, 2015

Who has steering wheel of your life?

My oldest boy, Chris, lives near the Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina. NASCAR races are run there, along with many other races. Chris has the opportunity to take his family to the races.

I didn't know it, but before the main race, they let other racers "warm up the track." Chris has seen jalopies race. Sometimes a teen or a woman's division will race. He has seen law enforcement officers run their patrol cars around the track with lights flashing and sirens blaring.

The other evening he watched a church bus race. Really. It was titled "the Faster Pastor Race." The old, worn out church buses were driven by the pastor of the church whose name was stenciled on the side of the bus.

He sent me a series of texts to tell me it was crazy fun. All of the pastors who participated had their congregations in the stands. Each church group was going crazy cheering for their pastor and their bus. Chris sent me videos of the buses flying around the track while the crowds cheered them in the stands. Then he sent me this text, and I am quoting my son exactly: "One just flipped and sent sparks flying for a quarter mile while they played ‘Jesus take the wheel' on the loud speaker." The crowd went wild.

I don't usually LOL, but I did. Our church doesn't own a church bus, but if someone can get a "Faster Pastor" race scheduled at 81 Speedway, we will buy a bus. Pitting the local pastors against each other in a race sounds like such good, clean fun. If it could be a figure 8, T-bone crash event, all the better for loving Christian fellowship.

But the reason I had to laugh at my son's text message is because Jesus rarely gets an invitation to take the wheel. Sometimes we will let him steer, but usually it has to be a "crash and burn" situation. Only when we have totally lost control of our circumstances do we cry out to him. He will be glad to take the wheel, right now. Just step on the brake and ask him. He'll do it.

"Jesus take the wheel/Take it from my hands/Cause I can't do this on my own/I'm letting go/So give me one more chance/Save me from this road I'm on/Oh, Jesus take the wheel." — Carrie Underwood

Chuck Terrill is pastor of Valley Center Christian Church. He can be reached at chuck@valleycenterchristianchurch.org or 755-1233.