Why Lightning McQueen? Keep reading…

I stumbled upon a 3-year-old entry from my old blog that I wrote while leading my first ski retreat with my youth back in 2008. I thought it was interesting to see where my mind was at that time, and thought I’d share it with you.

This is from January 20, 2008. I had only two kids (HUH?) at the time, and was still fairly fresh to youth ministry.

As I sit here on the last full day of our Ski Retreat, a fire burning about three feet to the northeast of where I’m sitting, I think about how, for most of us, spirituality is routine. We carry out a routine of going to church, Sunday School, the occasional Wednesday night dinner, etc. But what are we getting out of it?

When Jesus becomes routine to us, we need to take a step back, view the big picture of our lives, and say, “I need to do something to rejuvenate myself right now.” Think of it as a lecture on one of your favorite topics, but with a relatively boring speaker. You go into the lecture expecting great things, but then those great things just tend to blend in with everything and become less and less special as it goes on.

My son’s favorite movie of all time is “Cars.” I’ve seen this movie more times than I care to recount, but this movie has a great line that is appropriate to this situation. When Lightning McQueen goes to get new tires from Luigi, he says, “Gimme the best set of blackwalls you’ve got!” To which Luigi replies, “You do not know what you want – Luigi knows what you want. Blackwall tires – they blend into the pavement. What you need are white wall tires – they say, ‘Look at me… love me.’”

My challenge to you is to not “blend into the pavement.” Do something extraordinary for Christ – because He’s done some pretty extraordinary things for you.

God Bless,
Jon

Man, I miss watching Cars. KA-CHOW!!!