This is Talladega

Well, it has been an interesting weekend. God has taught me much over the weekend and especially during our transition from Canada to Alabama. I will be including a post soon on many things God has taught me over the past few months soon. Now, back to this weekend. It is a weekend that my owner at Best Western has been anticipating for months now. Why? This is because it was time to make money from the Talladega race fans. In case you didn't know (I didn't), Talladega is kind of a big deal in Alabama and for NASCAR fans around the world. Yes, we had some fans at our hotel from Canada and Australia this weekend. There are over 100,000 people who attend this race because it is the grand-daddy (or at least close) to one of the best tracks. This is all new to me! We had a couple of NASCAR drivers (Mike Harmon and Jennifer Jo Cobb) who stayed at our hotel along with some other notable people. Anyway, after striking up some conversation with one guy and setting his wake-up call, he said to me, "Hey, I've got some extra tickets for Saturday and Sunday if you know someone who wants them." It was right as I was leaving and I was thinking, "Who can I give these tickets to?" Well, I tried. I contacted several people who I thought might enjoy them and everyone was busy with one thing or another. Needless to say, I am not a NASCAR fan. Well, I didn't want the tickets to go to waste so I took Steven Hershael and Mr. Dennis to the early morning race on Saturday.

What was it like? CRAZY, LOUD, and INTERESTING. I was glad to be able to take Hersh man there and for him to see a race but what was sad was the fascination in man. It was the ol' tower of babel (Genesis 11) just in a different form. Without a doubt, I have fallen to the sin of idolatry when it comes to sports. I do love the Cardinals, Rams, Spurs, and NCAA Basketball but when it consumes the heart we have fallen prey to the desires of the world. As followers of Christ, we are prone to easily get distracted (just ask Peter).

While at the race track, we were able to talk a bit with the Joe Gibbs sponsored booth called

I AM SECOND. They were passing out tracts and pointing to the reality that God is FIRST and should always worship Him above all other things.

Darrin Patrick says it well when he writes, "The problem is that human beings not only fail to love God as he requires, but that we love to create other substitute gods to worship in the place of God. This is the essence of what we need to be saved from—sin. So, the essence of sin is idolatry, whereby we removed God from the altar of our hearts and replace him with functional gods of our own choosing. What does it mean to be saved? It means that Jesus came to satisfy the righteous requirements of the law so that sinners and idolaters could be reconciled to fellowship with God.”

So, I am thankful for a fast-paced and free NASCAR ticket weekend but even more thankful for God reminding me of the foolishness that comes when we idolize man instead of worshiping the God-man, Jesus Christ.

This is what the LORD says:

“Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the LORD (Jeremiah 9:23-24).