gRace Cars
gRace Cars
“Blessed is
the man whose strength is in thee;
In whose
heart are the highways to Zion!”
Psalm 84:5
(ASV)
Dear
God, I realize that you’ve blessed me with a minivan as my usual “gRace car”,
but if you ever decide to send a chariot of fire for me again, I did enjoy
Jaguar you worked into our weekend! You can let a guardian angel like the
racecar instructor drive it for me again – I’ve realized I don’t need steering
wheel control on the road to heaven. No matter what vehicle you pick for me, please
keep my soul steadily on the road to Zion, because if it was left to me alone
I’m pretty sure my soul would go off-roading into the heart’s wilderness. I’ve
seen it go there before, and while you do provide some incredible Land Rovers
for the off-road experiences, the highway to Zion seems a much smoother choice.
Also, I’ve realized that I don’t really know where I am going, given all the
hairpin turns, and chicanes in life. I can’t see safely around the bends at the
speed life goes, and I’m never sure how fast I should really go on the
straight-aways. So, please go ahead and keep the GPS (God-positioning system)
on at all times, and the angel at the steering wheel. With humble and deep
gratitude for all the other amazing “gRace cars” you’ve got me racing along with
in life too. Thank you. Amen.
Over
the weekend we had an incredible experience attending a Vintage Car Racing
Festival at the Portland International Racetrack. It reminded me of how much we
have in common with motor driven machines. In occupational therapy, I was taught that all of our
muscle-joint movement is considered the “motor work” of the body, while the
seeing, touching, hearing, tasting, smelling, and awareness of our position in
space is considered the “sensory work” of the body. A couple of bright,
entrepreneurial OTs compiled knowledge of how these two systems work together
as the sensory-motor system to develop a program they call “The Alert Program:
How Does Your Engine Run?” It was a great program I used sometimes to help children
and adults learn how music, smells, small exercises, food temperatures and
textures, lighting, and many more inputs from our environment can adjust the
“engines” of our sensory-motor system to impact how alert and smoothly we can
function at work, school, and home. Do bright lights stimulate you to work well
by keeping you awake, or are they too much? Does sipping a cold smoothie
through a straw, or eating crunchy cereals invigorate or drain you? Does
rocking out to music give you the pep you need to wash the car, or does silent,
Mr. Miyagi style meditation over wax-on-wax-off movements, make it go best? Does
catching a whiff of incense quickly bring you to a state of prayerful calm or
does it make your nose itch and distract you? Is exercise best placed at the
beginning, middle, or end of your day, or a little at each time? We all have
unique sensory-motor systems, and the answers to these questions can vary widely.
But, at the base of all these human-engine questions, I’m realizing we are each
essentially a “gRace car” – blessed, beyond the environmental inputs, to be
here and riding through life merely by Divine grace.
Out
at the festival, I caught the sign (above) for “course technique” that struck
me as familiar to some of the techniques masters of prayer recommend too. High eyes – don’t just look at the
immediate situation, look a little on the horizon and off into the eternal
horizon to get the best perspective, and aim for Jesus examples. 9+3
Hand position – Jesus hand positions on the cross are also 9+3, strength
through openness, vulnerability, sacrifice come through His 9+3 hand positions.
Slow in/Fast out – As you come up to
a turn, a change in life, take time to slow down, pray over it, and aim well,
once you are making the turn you can speed up life to gain momentum for the
straight-aways. Firm on the brakes –
This strikes me as the James 5:12 technique: “let your yes be your yes and your
no be your no.” Smooth is fast – once you find yourself
with a good prayer habit and a straight-away keep pressing down gently and
smoothly into it, a little like “Be still, and know that I am God.” Relax/breathe – Inhaling “Yah” and breathing
out “weh” helps us relax into God’s intended speed and course. Have fun! – The best thing I’ve read
recently (paraphrased) is that God is a total binge of peace, hope, joy, and
love (Sebastian Moore, O.S.B.).
May
the God of infinite peace, hope, joy and love, be both the road that rises to
meet you, and Divine engine that guides your “gRace car” today. Amen.
