Over the weekend I saw part of the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series. Before the race began, the trucks were muddy with parts already hanging off.
They took off through the mud, over hoops and jumps and around hairpins. They banged into each other, came off jumps that ripped a bumper off, slid and spun and broke axles. One guy had his hood fly up into the windshield and he kept driving, peaking through the one little hole he could see through.
As I watched I thought, “THAT is life!”
We all want life to be a Sunday drive through the country. Big blue skies, with warm sunshine and everyone following the proper traffic patterns. But it’s not.
Life is like off-road racing.
Even at the beginning, genetics start us out dinged up. Then we take off, flying through ups and downs. There are people who run into us and bang us up even more. Sometimes we flip over, due to our own foolish driving.
Even if we try to run a clean race and avoid conflict, we barrel along slinging mud everywhere. Sometimes we even get hurt by our own teammates.
The difference between life and the race is, when something really breaks, they take the truck off the track. They drag it to the pits, then all the teammates gather to work on it.
For some reason, we don’t do that. Sure, navigating life is going to bang us up. We’ll get dented, scrapped and damaged, and we keep going. Sometimes, though, the wheels come off. But instead of asking for help, we sit there with our foot on the accelerator.
We think if we try to press forward and plow ahead everything will be OK. But if things are too broken, you can’t. All you’ll be is stuck.
We don’t have to run this race alone. It’s OK to pull off the track from time. Only off the track can we be propped up and get healing from the folks around us. Only off the track, can we look under the hood and make adjustments.
I like the Lucas Oil Series. It reminds me that dents and scrapes and scars are just a part of the journey. And so is healing.
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