Open Blogging
NASCAR lost one of it’s icons this week as driver Kyle Busch died at the age of 41.
I have no expectation that this is of any interest to most of our readership, but it has been fascinating to me to watch the NASCAR community deal with the loss.
You have to understand that NASCAR is a bastion of civil religion and personal Christian faith…there is a public prayer before every race and they don’t pray to a generic “god”…they pray in the name of Jesus.
Biffle had been legendary for his daring helicopter flights bringing water and supplies to people affected by the floods of a couple years ago…dozens of daring rescues, all at his own expense.
Busch was one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history…and one of the most controversial.
For a great number of years he was mostly reviled by the fan base…he was arrogant and ruthless and loud…I couldn’t stand him.
Then he got married and (after much grief) had children…both being a husband and a father had a salutary effect on him.
He poured himself into his family…his son was marked for the same greatness as his father.
The fan base grew to view him as a hero.
Then he got sick…a sickness that usually doesn’t lead to death…then was gone.
Now, a community steeped in faith is asking questions…or more precisely the question…“why”?
What does God have to do with these deaths?
Where was He when the pilots were trying to keep that plane in the air?
Why didn’t He heal Busch instead of allowing an infection to kill him?
Personally, Busch’s death was unsettling to me…I had a similar situation just a few weeks ago…I came home to my cats, his children are fatherless.
I can’t answer the “why” questions…all I know is that we live in a fallen, broken world and awful things happen as a result.
The creation has been desecrated…but is in the process of redemption.
My hope is in the Creator finishing that incredible work.
Now, sometimes He intervenes…sometimes He doesn’t.
I don’t understand…I trust.
Some days I trust more than others.
May God bring peace to these families and these communities…so they can trust again as well.
Now, it’s all yours today….
On the pre-race show, one of the analysts just stopped and prayed on national tv.
Don’t believe I’ve seen that before…but it moved me.
This is a prime reason I miss discussing theology…
Michael,
At the SNF I am one of three patriots. One has a terminal illness that is slowly sucking the life out of her. The other has medical complications pfcthe elderly-falls and a lot of disorientation. In these kinds of situations O always come back to Romans 8, Job, the lives of the apostles, and the book of Job, as well as God’s sovereignty. I know the world is a mess, I know a lot of it is because of people. Demonic forces are in charge as well, but God demonstrates his love toward us in many ways. That gives me hope!
Things I am familiar with:
1. The Biffle airplane crash. – a retired major airline pilot was in command of the airplane. However, it was required for him to have a 2nd rated/qualified pilot with him. He did not.
2. It appears the pilot in command ran down the airplane’s battery during start and failed to put airplane generators on during the post-start/pre-takeoff phases of the operation. This caused initial issues in cockpit and was compounded by not having a qualified 2nd in command.
3. The airplane was “low and slow” when it crashed with running engines. Maybe a qualified 2nd pilot would have caught this?
So far the conclusion is the crash was preventable had disciplined SOP been followed.
Additionally without the qualified 2nd in command the flight never should have happened.
A question being asked are; how many times have they flown in this matter and been successful?
This is called “normalization of deviation.”
Kyle Bush was reported sick and at the time he collapsed it was also reported he was participating in on-line racing. He did what most of us “A” types do, “we can power through it.” Last year my adult son (husband and father of 4) almost died in a similar way. He ended up hospitalized for two weeks fighting sepsis, which he just thought was a bad case of flu.
And here we go: Leviticus 10:1-10 the 2 sons of Arron decided to do it their way and paid the price.
What’s the point? Maybe the higher up one goes in life and responsibility the greater the personal requirements.
Pilots are easy, it’s an immediate problem.
A man (or woman) with a family and business (with the associated number of employees and clients they are responsible for and to) relying upon them maybe needs to be pay more attention to their personal health and ethics.
Theologically wise…
We all can be saved from our sins, but what happens when those sins spread their tentacles to others?
Just some thoughts.
Linn,
As a pastor to an older church and someone who has been through a lot of difficulties personally in the last few years, I try to focus on a mystery…that suffering is somehow redemptive, not just for ourselves, but for others.
Somehow, our suffering holds in it the promise of redemption and new creation…
TH,
I can’t judge these things without playing the hypocrite.
I hate being in the hospital and being away from my cats.
Liam gets very upset when I’m gone.
Despite being hospitalized three times for pneumonia and infections in a month and a half, I’ve left the hospital before they wanted to release me every time.
Days before.
I can’t get well being away from my feline support system…which probably sounds incredibly foolish, but it’s true.
I’m not judging these people at all (okay the pilot is a problem). The stories in the Bible and in life about how others made it through (or not) difficulties and failures is to help us live life and hopefully learn from those who have gone before us.
We will make our own mistakes and sins, but maybe we can minimize the impact on ourselves and our circles.
In the two you mentioned, the pilot should have known better and the airplane owner trusted his judgement.
As far as Kyle goes, I probably would have done what he did and thought I would get over the sickness. Who knows, I’m in my 70s now and it is highly likely pneumonia will bring the end. But until then I’m doing my best to eat, exercise and live a “healthy” life. Like theology, I ask a lot of questions and seek helpful advice and guidance. Then it’s on me and I get to make the final decisions.
I felt really bad for Kyle, Biffle and all the people they touch. The pilot, not so much because people relied on his skill and judgment.
The ‘what if’ or ‘if only’ pursuits provide no satisfactory answers both when considering human culpability or divine. What we are always left with is an unsatisfactory outcome when we thought a better one was warranted. ‘I would have’ is wishful thinking. All one must do is think about all the times when ‘I should have’ and it cancels out the ‘I would have.’ I think we are slaves to living in a fallen messed up world with just enough hope and idealism to imagine better outcomes and somehow expect occasionally one to happen. That Christ rescues us from this pit is grace enough for me today.
And we’re supposed to let an ungodly pretender’s reading a prayer out of context and a psychotic, yelling nutcase tell us that joining them is the answer.
Is this how incredibly stupid we’ve become?
The “what if,” “if only,” or “I would have” are not the way to look back or examine what others have done before us. These are learning experiences to move forward and live life from. It is the whole reason we study history and yes even theology.
Just consider if the military didn’t study the past battles, how the enemy did things in the past and how the current situation facing them may have roots and solutions leading to victory.
Consider a sports team who fails to examine both their own behaviors and skill execution on the field and those of their opponents.
While we are slaves to our fallen humanity, we would be and are fools for not considering what our fathers went through before us and even what we did in our short time here in life. This is the making of repentance!
Why bother even listening to the hope which is in Jesus then?
Because while we breath everyday counts!
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.”
Remember, someone took the time to tell you about Jesus and yes before them it was another person who did the same.
Therefore, remember the pilot and Kyle because they left a legacy for us to consider who we are.
Today is Memorial Day, don’t just thank those who serve on our behalf consider their examples and apply it to our life.
I never gave a rat’s rear end or followed the Non-Athletic Sport Cared About (by) Rednecks. As for the prayers and their invocation of Jesus, all I can say is which Jesus? Seems to me Talladega Nights and the prayer of Ricky Bobby is spot on. The Jesus of NASCAR is the same bogus one of the American civil religion and of the MAGA Christians.
And as for auto-racing, if I was to follow any type, it would be Formula One. F1 compared to NASCAR is like comparing the 1992 US Olympic Dream Team to a Junior College Basketball Team. There is a reason why NASCAR and Indy/CART drivers crash and burn when they try F1. Only 2 Americans have ever been really successful at F1 and the last one was Mario Andretti.
Ra’s al Ghul,
I follow NASCAR…I guess I have a bit of redneck in me…more than a bit, actually.
Anyone who can pilot a machine going 200 miles an hour in traffic with other people doing the same has athletic skills most do not have.
I am also quite cynical…but the Jesus that was preached in the midst of tragedy yesterday was the same one I know…nothing is as simple as we would like…or perhaps I haven’t yet reached your level of religious sophistication…
I am keenly aware of the cognitive dissonance created by someone like me being a NASCAR fan.
NASCAR is a product of the American South with all of its great strengths and glaring sins.
The series owners are among Trumps most fervent financial supporters.
What they demonstrated yesterday was why I watch…they embraced a family torn by tragedy as “family forever”… they celebrate their history and primary values that I share…and they acknowledge Jesus publicly and sincerely.
They are , like all of us, complex and contradictory…but the impulses of the soul are good.
A regular blog commenter I used to get into heated back-and-forths with years ago in the iMonk comments once said, in a slightly indelicate and even rough way, something that nevertheless expresses an difficult truth: “We all owe God one death.”
Robert F,
I’m not sure I’d put it that way…but yes…
Michael,
I’m not sure I would either, but he did, and somehow I couldn’t argue with him about it.
The president of the United States today threatened to blow up the country of Oman, an ally, if it disobeyed his will with regard to the administration of the Strait of Hormuz. What would one call such a man, in such a position of immense power, who would make such a threat, but an antichrist? He is an antichrist.