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THE FASTER PASTORS...THOUGHTS FROM TRACK CHAPLAIN WAYNE BUTTS OF LIBERTY CHURCH

 

Racing is fun.  Racing is an adventure. Racing is competitive.  These statements are true for all racers-yes, even those behind the wheel in the third annual Faster Pastor Race here at Five Flags Speedway.  You may be one who believes pastors taking to the track would simply be an exercise in dullness as they attempt to apply Matthew 20:16  (“the first will be last and the last first�) on the track. You would be dead wrong.

The pastors I know are winners.  There is an inner drive to win--to be excellent.  Every driver participating has a desire to cross the finish line first. However, this desire for excellence doesn’t mean success would then come from being superior to others, it means striving to be our best in who God has created us to be.  Brian Harbour, author of Rising Above the Crowd, casts light on this concept. “Success means being the best. Excellence means being your best. Success, to many, means being better than everyone else. Excellence means being better tomorrow than you were yesterday. Success means exceeding the achievements of other people. Excellence means matching your practice with your potential.� (Italics mine). In other words, excellence is being all God has created you to be.

I trust you are searching for excellence in your life in order for you to be all God has created you to be.  I believe racing can be an ideal tool to accomplish this goal if we see it as a means of shaping us into Christ-likeness.  After all, racing offers the opportunity to learn the benefits of teamwork, the humility to navigate through mishaps and crisis, respect for others, goal-setting, responsibility and experiencing the joy of a job well done.  But here’s the deal. This quest for excellence is rarely achieved alone.  If you have a desire to be all God has created you to be, you need to be involved in a community sharing the same desire.  Any of the pastors racing in this Faster Pastor race would love to have you come alongside them and pursue God’s best with their church family.

I would be remiss if I didn’t thank Courtney Rodrigues, Sarah Dority and Tim Wilmot for the use of their cars to make this event possible.  What an act of unselfish kindness! Thank you all!

See you on the road to excellence.

Blessings!

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