God First, family second, work third, pleasure (racing) fourth.  As we honor our savior and Lord this weekend, please realize the events of which we honor.  Racing on Friday, Good Friday is the day our Lord was crucified on the cross.  Jesus had his last meal with his disciples on Thursday evening.  He was arrested during the night, tried on Friday morning (Good Friday), and condemned, crucified, and dead before sundown on Friday.  He arose on the third day, Sunday, which is why we celebrate Easter.

Why do I write this in a blog, because of something I have believed but not always practiced God First, family second, work third, and pleasure (racing) fourth.  We start the driver’s meetings at Lakeside and I35 Speedways  with Family Matters because racing ties us all together as family.  Whether we like it or not, like someone in racing or not, we are family.  We are tied together by the passion we have for this sport!  Christ died for us because of the passion he had for us, take our racing passion and multiply it by billions and billions and that is how much passion God and his son have for us!  Jesus went to the cross for us.  Hard to fathom that much love but it is there.  Do you think it is coincident that we met over racing?  It is no coincidence, we are tied together by family, and we are tied together by the love of our sport.

Hmm, that word love – God is love – “1 John 4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” – and John 3:16For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

So we love our sport and God is love so since we love our sport we are all inflicted with God (love), thus making us family.  Since we are family, we are inflicted with love, we love our sport, our next step is to love each other – Luke 6:31: Do to others as you would have them do to you.  So as you enjoy competing, working, watching, and loving our sport this weekend, please remember we would not have this sport if it were not for love.  We are all in this together, race fan, racecar driver, pit crew, official, concession worker, clean up personnel, fire crew, tow truck operator, pit gate person, all of us, tied together through love, through our sport, through family.

So the challenge to all of us is to lay down our cross before our God, love each other, work towards our goals, and enjoy our sport no matter what occurs, win, lose, draw, spin, bad call, good call, it does not matter, just love one another and remember why we celebrate this weekend.