This is my friend Mike’s old race car which he raced on dirt in the street stock division at Potomac Speedway in Budd’s Creek, Maryland. And while I didn’t help much, I did get to play a very small roll in getting the car ready for Friday night competition. You may be wondering just what the heck the racing surface is. Glad you asked! Although I don’t believe it has a technical name, it is basically oiled-down clay, or some other kind of dirt. I’m pretty sure the EPA would declare it toxic waste, or at the very least an environmental hazard. On the plus side, the oil held the dirt together and created a tacky surface on which to race. Negatively, aside from taking a few years off of the life expectancy of the planet, it smelled awful and stuck like epoxy to anything that touched it. BTW, why is it that the things with the worse odors are the easiest to “find” and the hardest to remove? Guess that’s a topic for another blog. Anyhow, this adhesive melange of earth and fossil fuel was also heavy. One of my responsibilities at the shop was to scrape this stuff off of the car. And trust me when I tell you that it found its way into every nook and cranny possible. The scraping was important for a couple of reasons. First, it removed unnecessary, cumbersome weight, a hindrance to speed and handling. Also, it afforded quicker, cleaner access to areas of the car that may have needed repair or adjustment. In comparison to horsepower, suspension set-up, and Mike’s expert driving, it is certainly less important. But when it comes to competing for victories, any advantage or edge, even those that are seemingly minor, can make a difference. In more than a few places, the apostle Paul referred to the Christian life as a race, and encourages followers of Jesus to finish victoriously (1 Cor. 9:24). Because there is no more important endeavor in which we can engage, it is paramount that we, figuratively speaking, scrape not only the spiritual mud from our lives, but also anything that hinders us from glorifying God and enjoying him forever, to paraphrase the Westminster Shorter Catechism.
(Click “Stand on Firmer Ground” for deeper look into Scraping Mud)