Saturday, June 30, 2012

Ya Gotta Let Go!

Suddenly, I had the answer to a fifty-year-old mystery.  My mind flashed back to that day when I was sixteen: Miss Hot Stuff with a driver’s license, running an errand in the family car.  Three blocks from the house, I plowed the car into the back of a parked truck.  Inattention, clear and simple.

So what’s the mystery?  I could never understand how I broke my hand.


Watching a NASCAR race a while back gave me the likely answer.  Recent in-car video from Daytona showing a nasty crash by Danica Patrick shows Danica throwing her hands in the air just prior to a hard hit on the inside wall.  Video from a later race showed Jimmie Johnson folding his hands across his mid-section just prior to a crash.  Racing analysts were quick to point out that these learned responses were exactly the right moves to protect their hands and arms.   Both walked away with minor bumps and bruises.

In other words: Take your hands off the wheel.  If you hold on through the moment of impact, you risk a badly broken wrist or, at the very least, some broken fingers. 

What do we do when life is heading for a crash?  How do we respond when inevitable disaster looms ahead on our road of life?  Grip that steering wheel with all you’ve got and try to keep control, you say? 

There is a crucial moment when we have to stop driving and let Jesus take the wheel. 


But when you’re sixteen, you don’t yet know these things.