Jim Jack has been a chaplain for Racers For Christ for… let’s just say… a long time. He writes a monthly column and we’re honored to now publish it on our website. For more info on Racers For Christ, visit their website – www.teamrfc.org.

“There are times when all the world’s asleep, the questions run too deep, for such a simple man.” Yes friends, I am a very simple man, and most things of the world are way over my head, and over my pay grade. But I do understand much of the reliable and truthful things in life. The first sentence are lyrics from the rock group Super Tramp, who had a hit song called “The Logical Song” and it mentions some things that we will get into.

To me, racing is logical and obviously the truth comes out on the track, and as they say, the proof is in the pudding. When we were growing up, I’d say most of what we heard and learned was the truth. But it today’s world, there’s so much fake news and bogus stuff, it’s almost impossible for today’s youth or adults to really know what is true and what’s not true.

Is driving a 265 mph Top Fuel Hydro logical? Is driving a 330 mph Top Fuel Dragster logical? At the drag races a few years ago in Pomona, CA, a 230 mph Top Fuel Harley Davidson motorcycle rider had an incident on the track and was taken to the local hospital. He asked RFC chaplain, Greg Wangler, what else do you do? Our chaplain said I also cover some drag boat racing. The Harley rider said “Those guys are crazy!” Logical?

Is it logical to become a drag racer? Is it logical to get married? Is it logical to have children? Is it logical to get an education? Is it logical to start your own business? Is it logical to believe in God? Is it logical to believe in a Master Creator and Designer of the universe? Is it logical to think and believe you will go to heaven?
Without even knowing it—the logical truth—many people are sailing or racing through dangerous waters. Always remember, one false belief can sink your ship!
I think most successful racers are pretty logical [reasonable, to be expected, relating to logic: logic is the science that investigates the principles governing correct or reliable deduction]. Drag racing can be a logical, but simple sport, just get to the finish line before your opponent and you win the race.
Maybe winning can also happen by out-thinking all of your opponents logically as well…don’t sulk or dwell…maybe there are speed secrets you didn’t tell…as your opponents one-by-one fell…into the losers’ well…simply be first when you hear God ring His bell.

Life requires all of us to investigate the things that truly matter. At the end of life, only two things matter, God and people. All of the other stuff in life carries no meaning when it’s time to leave this earth for our eternal destination. Naked we came into the world and naked we will leave this earth. But there’s no room to take your racing trophies with you into eternity.

Yes, racing is a great sport, and we’ve all had many great memories racing and being with our friends and racing family. But you can’t take any of the material things with you when you depart this world as we now know it. Even logic won’t help if you have only followed a worldly kind of logic and have yet to discover and believe the only reliable and eternal principle of believing God sent His one and only Son as a propitiation for our lives.

I know this monthly column is about racing, and it always will be about racing, but if you will allow it to get a little spiritual: Through the “propitiatory” sacrifice of Christ—the person who believes in Him, through God’s own act of His sacrificial death on a cross—is delivered from justly deserved wrath, and comes under the covenant of grace. The work of the cross is therefore the means whereby the barrier which sin interposes between God and man is broken down. Man forfeited his one and only life on account of sin: So God provided a one and only way whereby eternal life could be bestowed, namely, laying down His own life voluntarily.

In essence, many drag racers throughout history have laid down their lives voluntarily for the sport because of their deep love and passion for racing. Don’t get me wrong, you know I love drag racing, and have had a love affair with it since 1958. This love is still as strong as ever, but a different kind of love has overtaken me. This eternal love—through God’s gobs of good grace—won the race for me. I did not have to qualify to run this race; all I had to do was accept the track conditions: Believe in the One who made the rules.

The Rule Book is really pretty simple. Simpler than racing rule books that you have to have someone else help interpret for you, or attempt to figure it out on your own which may not always be the right answer to your problem(s). The real Real Rule Book lays it out clear and simple: Investigate the Creator of the universe. Look at eternal life logically. Come to a reliable deduction. Buy into God’s plan. It’s the best logic you can use, so go all-in.

It’s possible to be very sure about something, yet still be far from the truth. All you have to do is take a look around the world today and see there are many people who are passionate about different things. And not everything can be true. So someone has to be wrong! This is why we can’t base our search for truth on our passions or emotions. We have to look for what’s credible. And with all the spiritual beliefs out there today, none of them is as credible as the one that claims Jesus was raised from the dead. It’s as provable as any other event of its time!

Racing isn’t right because you simply believe in it. It is right because God gifted you to be a person who can logically design, build, drive, or wrench, and also blessed to be able to afford to race. “Christianity isn’t right because you believe it. It’s right because it’s true, and that’s why you can believe it,” (Senior Living daily Devotional 5-26-21).

Building a ten thousand horsepower engine to insert into a hydroplane boat is probably only logical to a drag boat racer: This high-powered machine looks incredible…sounds immeasurable…smells very chemical…brings on a festival…is quite pleasurable…even rentable…not very plentiful…at times you may need a confessional…it is multidimensional…your credit card company thinks it’s hysterical…especially when it becomes pyrotechnical…but remember Almighty God’s good gift of grace can be incomprehensible.

Christianity is a thinking man’s—and woman’s—religion. If you take five minutes and look around and see all creation in all its glory, “The heavens declare the glory of God,” (Psalm 19:1), and realize the perfect synchronization of our solar system, it is very logical that it was not some big bang theory that built this earth and its inhabitants to be what we are today.

Check out some more of these lyrics from Super Tramp “The Logical Song.”

“When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful, a miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical.
And all the birds in the trees, well they’d be singing so happily, oh joyfully, playfully watching me.
But then they send me away to teach me how to be sensible, logical, oh responsible, practical.
And they showed me a world where I could be dependable, oh clinical, oh intellectual, cynical.
I said; watch what you say or they’ll be calling you a radical, liberal, oh fanatical, criminal.”

If our eyes have evolved, why do we need glasses? If our hearing has evolved why do we need hearing aids? If our hearts have evolved, why do we need heart surgery? Sure we have many faults within the human race, but we have been given free will to do what we want, so we’ll all just have to face the logical truth and consequences one day.

On the other hand, whatever or wherever you’ve invested in the work of God’s kingdom—every drop of sweat, every minute of service, every thanks you proclaimed, all your praises voiced, every dollar you gave for ministry, and every prayer you contributed for the preaching of the gospel or for the support of your church—will result in spiritual fruit to your account. So don’t put your hope in wealth. Instead, use what God has given you for your good and His glory. This my friends is the logical way!

To anyone involved in motorsports racing is truly logical…to many outsiders racing is illogical…many racers are analytical…for a few it is simply genealogical…or possibly biological…some think drivers are neurological…a nitro powered hot rod may be seismological…but most racers seem to be analogical…in reality some even some appear zoological…to be a champion it becomes very technological…but in God’s kingdom it’s a simple matter of believing the truth in His realm of the theological.