Can the Bible be trusted?

As far as the Bible goes, perhaps all you'd be willing to say is that you have a basic respect for it. You know it means a lot to some people, and you have no problem with that. You're happy for them. But for you-it just doesn't seem all that relevant to what you deal with on a daily basis. The times you've tried reading it, you can hardly understand what it says. Besides, who can claim with 100% confidence that the Bible says exactly what God said it was supposed to say?

First, a racing update. We're getting close to the season starting and everyone around here is getting excited! It's a short off-season, roughly two and a half months, and now Daytona is just around the corner so final preparations are being made.

Jesus told a story about three men, each presented with an allotment of money to handle in the way they thought best. Two of the men took their share, invested it wisely, and earned a 100% return. But the third man, afraid to risk any loss, buried his money in the ground. Rather than feeling free to be creative with what God had given, rather than enjoying a relationship with his master that gave him room to try and fail, he was always looking over his shoulder, motivated less by success and more by avoiding punishment. He thought of his boss as a “hard man” (Matthew 25:24), itching to crush anyone who crossed him. You never knew what might set him off.

Just when some in leadership thought the Korean War was all but over, American troops approaching the North Korean border were surprised by a blistering, middle-of-the-night ambush from the Chinese army. One of the platoons drew back into a dry creek bed, hoping to weather the assault. But realizing they had only made themselves easier targets by yielding the high ground, they began urging each other out. Better to risk death on the run than get it guaranteed in a ditch.

Maybe you're going through something that feels impossible to fix, change, or endure. Maybe you and your wife are colliding on just about every issue. You can hardly have a ten-minute conversation that doesn't sink into snide remarks. Or maybe your home life is fine, but you've let a health condition worsen to a danger point. Or you're not sure how you're going to cover payroll this month. Perhaps some big decision needs to be made, but neither option comes without scary risks and negatives.

No matter how tough we are, there are times when we feel outmatched. Times when we don't know how we're going to get through this. Times when we slip outside at night and stare up into the stars, wishing that some kind of answer or relief would find its way down to our lonely spot on the planet.

We've heard coaches emphatically deny their interest in pursuing another job. They say they're happy where they are, that they're committed to their current players-only to be introduced days later at a press conference in a new city, wearing a new cap, announced as the new hire.

Maybe they really did say no the first time they were approached. Maybe it wasn't until the next offer, and the next, and the next-as the dollar signs went up and the package got sweeter-before they deemed it too good to pass up.

 

Have you ever noticed that a five percent raise doesn’t really change much in your take-home pay? Aren’t you just as hungry for breakfast the morning after a $50.00 meal as after a $5.00 one? How many of the items in your garage or attic once served a useful purpose inside your actual living space? And why do all of us know these things to be true?

Because we’ve seen them. We’ve lived them. If there’s one thing we know about money and the things it can buy, it’s the fact that we routinely overvalue them. We expect them to be so much more than they typically turn out to be.