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By Rev Don Rivers
Welcome to the Winter Bible Study, a time in the offseason to reflect and spend in God’s Word. The passage we are using this year is short but contains so much for us to reflect on. We’ll look at three areas; Be still, Know, and God. Let’s review the ground we’ve covered? Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ
Psalm 46:10a; NLT; Be still, and know that I am God.
As we challenge ourselves this time to learn how to be still and know God, Winter helps us with that, the silence of a winter snowfall. As the snow falls you can hear the silence. I have stood on the back deck as it snowed and you could hear the silence. Not much going on, just a stillness until the snow stops.
A snowy day becomes a reason to be still. Nowhere to go, nothing to do, just let the day come to you without the need to fill it with the busyness of life. Life slows down when it snows, schedules change, it gets a little less rushed. I sometimes think life should be that way, no agenda, no deadlines, let it come as it will and we can respond from there.
We don’t look at life that way. In fact, we look at life the opposite, we plan and fill our agenda with things we feel need to get done. We can become a slave to doing things. We feel like if we don’t have a plan, somehow, we are shirking our responsibility. The world pressures us into being busy, 24-7, 365.
The racing schedule used to have breaks. We didn’t race on Mother’s Day weekend or Easter. May was a light month on the schedule because of Indy and the racing world focused on the competition there. I remember the Modified Tour Schedule when we raced the Sizzler on the last weekend of April and the next race was Memorial Day Weekend.
Every day it seems the world we live in has more and more things happening that consume our attention. Night and day our minds don’t seem to stop. It is becoming harder and harder to unplug, slow down and be still. The world says you are falling behind, keep up!
There comes a time when we have to make a choice. I am not as young as I used to be and my body has helped me make some choices I don’t think my mind was on board with making. I have seen the ill effects when we don’t take time to be still. I know people who didn’t take a break to slow down that were forced, by medical issues, to slow down. We can literally work ourselves to death.
Psalm 46:10a; NLT; Be still, and know that I am God.
Have you ever been there scratching your head trying to figure out what adjustments to make to correct a handling problem with your racecar and someone offers you advice? There is no shortage of opinions, some don’t even take into account your expertise, the experience you have and the results you have already achieved. It usually starts with; “all you gotta do …”
We all have sources that we turn to, that we trust to help us when we need advice. At the racetrack and in life. Part of our experience is knowing who knows what. We learn, usually by making errors, whose advice is true and who is just blowing smoke. The process of gaining knowledge and understanding at the racetrack and in life is trial and error.
There are several things, areas, we rely on to gain knowledge. We rely on tradition, or someone else’s knowledge. We rely on our knowledge and understanding. We rely on our experience, what we see happen and observe. The truth is they all have flaws, places where they can let us down.
The first challenge with knowledge is when we are inexperienced. We are just starting out and we haven’t been exposed to many of the things that life throws at us. Maturity is a word used when we have gained experience. Remember that insurance company; “We know a few things because we’ve seen a few things.” Life experience comes only when you have lived life.
Just as knowledge can be flawed, experience can also be flawed; it can be too narrow or two wide. You have heard about the Jack of all trades, master of none. Sometimes our experience is broad, we know a lot about a lot of things, but we really don’t know anything too well. The other side of the coin is we can have great experience but it is so focused when we are out of that environment we really have nothing to offer.
What happens when we exceed the knowledge or experience of our trusted sources? We have to lean on someone else’s understanding. We need to trust someone else to guide us. Those are the times we need to be careful of. I have seen many times where people have asked someone for advice that wasn’t honorable or trustworthy. That usually doesn’t end well.
Because this passage is about a personal relationship with God, let’s examine knowledge as it relates to a relationship. Knowledge comes in progression; First is superficial knowledge, I know you enough to recognize your looks. Then we start learning about someone and our knowledge progresses to knowledge about you. We progress from there to initiate a relationship, and our knowledge goes to recognition of behaviors, we know someone by what they do. From there our knowledge grows to the point that it manifests itself in our actions. We do things or engage in activities because we know someone so well.
Knowing someone is so much more than being able to recognize them. I know about you. I know who you are and how you think. I know how I will respond to what I know about you. We know God, but do we have an understanding of God? And does He know us? We need to know God enough to recognize how he does things and join Him in those efforts.
To know God requires us to spend time with Him. The challenge comes moving beyond the superficial and digging deep into God’s word and knowing God. Here’s a question to ask yourself if you’re not sure where you stand. Do I have more religious habits than real understanding? Do I actually know Him? Or do I just think I do.
Isaiah 55:6; NLT; Seek the Lord while you can find him. Call on him now while he is near.
Run the race in such a way as to win, throw off everything that hinders and focus on Jesus. Until next time, remember God loves you and Jesus is Lord over Auto Racing! God Bless. Remember, that your prayerful support and donations helps us continue this ministry. Thank You.
