Dusek Rough Cut Men

A Man's Battle Guide to Building Real Relationships with Each Other, and with Jesus
1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-1-61339-787-9
Verlag: Made For Success Publishing
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 100 Seiten

Autoren/Hrsg.

Dusek, David

Leseproben

2 “SAFE” IS OVERRATED (Becoming a Dangerous Man) One word used to come to mind when I thought of any kind of auto racing: “boring.” Watching a bunch of cars drive around a circle on TV? Oddly enough, I would watch bowling or golf, but racing? Just not my thing. That all changed when I became a part of an Indy Car pit crew in 1992 (they were called CART cars back then, for you open wheel purists). I lived in Portland, Oregon at the time and a local racing team was attempting to put together the first “allathlete” pit crew by soliciting recruits from local gyms. I was a gym rat in my 20s, and somehow they managed to pique my interest enough to try out. Up until this point, the average pit crew consisted of the guys who could at least make it over the wall. The athlete concept was new, the brainchild of a guy who worked at Nike. If you know much about racing in the new millennium, virtually every pit crew these days is comprised entirely of athletes. When it comes to mechanical aptitude, many pit men don’t know much more about the inner workings of the cars than the drivers do. These guys are professional athletes, trained by the likes of Lance Armstrong’s personal trainer at on-site gyms that rival any NFL team. With millions of sponsorship dollars involved, racing is now a big-ticket business. And since every second spent in the pits represents an entire football field on the race track, race shops invest a ton of money in their “over the wall” crew. Well, out of 88 guys who tried out, I made the top nine. The only problem was that the team only needed eight guys, so I was out. I had “fumbled” a rear tire during a relay and fell face-down into a concrete floor, but I got back up in spite of the blood to finish the relay. Fortunately for me, due to the intense training and practice schedule, one of the men ahead of me dropped out. Evidently my bloody second effort in the relay caught the eye of the team owners, so I spent most of May 1992 in Speedway, Indiana. I learned to love racing and the guys on my team, and it was a bitter pill to swallow when our car failed to qualify; the team went bankrupt and we all went home. My new career in motorsports was over before it started. But my passion for racing was birthed that year. Since then, I answered the call into ministry and have spoken at the NASCAR Sprint Cup shop of Joe Gibbs Racing several times. I love the culture and racing in general. Deep down, every guy wants to belong to a successful effort, focusing on something greater than themselves, and racing is definitely a team sport. Now you may or may not be a race fan. In my travels, I have discovered a lot of guys who either love it or hate it. There isn’t much gray, so to speak. And when you poll male race fans, which I have only done in a very unscientific fashion (aka, by asking them), what do you suppose is the principal overwhelming draw toward racing? Let me ask the question another way: What are guys waiting for when they watch a race? The crashes. The “big one.” They want twisted metal and concrete, fire and smoke... with no driver injuries, of course. We want to see half of the 43-car field crash with five laps to go. But times have changed in the world of motorsports, gentlemen. Last year, my son Jordan and I spent some time in Daytona during Speed Week. Traditionally, the Thursday before the Daytona 500 consists of a lot of practice laps and two separate qualifying races. And if you are a NASCAR fan at all, you may have noticed that they keep modifying the cars. They look different, sound different, and frankly look more like a regular “daily driver” than ever. As a bit of racing background, you non-race fans should know a few historical facts about stock car racing. First, at the inception of stock car racing, the cars themselves were essentially the same models you could buy off the showroom floor, with much bigger motors and a number spray painted on the door. They drove on sand and dirt, for crying out loud. The cars had four-point seatbelts, metal dashboards, and drivers who wore nothing more than shop overalls and an open-faced helmet. And if they were really lucky, they had a fire extinguisher on board. In addition, even when they finally moved to real race tracks instead of the beach, the walls were solid concrete and speeds increased to a shade more than 200 MPH. And the guy with the checkered flag stood ON the track when the winner flew by. Racing was, by all counts, the definition of danger. At breakfast before our time at the track, I read an interesting article in a national newspaper that had opted to run a series of NASCAR articles in the week leading up to the race. This particular article was all about safety. It really struck me as an oxymoron, but the article served as a parable of sorts on why guys are avoiding both churches and relationships like the plague. In no particular order, the writer pointed out that the “Car of Tomorrow” (the new, smaller version of the typical Cup car) is equipped with crumple zones, collapsible steering wheels, 10-point roll cages, and all kinds of safety features. The cars have smaller restrictor plates that limit the flow of fuel into the carburetors and consequently slow them down. The new walls at the speedway are now called SAFER barriers and were comprised of something like the old Styrofoam coolers we used to fill with ice and beer. The walls around the track essentially collapse and absorb the impact of a crash. Additionally, due to the untimely death of Dale Earnhardt, every car now has head and neck restraint systems to avoid injury and all drivers MUST wear full-face helmets. Man, these days even the pit crew wears fire suits and helmets to change a tire! The article culminated with an interesting statistic: NASCAR was losing the male fan demographic between the ages of 1826. Really? Imagine that. Guys in that age group are watching UFC and the X Games, where athletes take skateboards down 90-degree ramps with nothing more than a brain bucket on their head. The last thing a young man wants to see is something touted as “safe.” And in their effort to slow down a sport based on speed and soften a sport where crashes are an integral part of the experience, NASCAR is losing a very large part of their fan base. Guess what? It isn’t any different in the church. We have turned church into a place to go, not a Person to follow. We have created flowery, happy places where everyone appears to be an inch deep and a mile wide. We have slowed it down, dumbed it down, and frankly made the church experience so archaic that it’s really no wonder the younger generations as a whole are finding other ways to spend their time. While we admit we need a Savior, we have packaged the “church experience” in a pretty white robe. Understand that I am a huge proponent of the organized church and believe that every believer needs to be connected to the body through a home church, but it’s almost as if the Stepford family has moved in. Church is safe, quiet, and completely uncompelling to most men, especially the young guys. Make no mistake. Jesus was a man’s man. God chose very specifically to come down to earth and blend in. He was a blue-collar worker, a carpenter. If you have ever worked with wood, you know that splinters and calluses come with the job. And while He was perfect and fully God and fully man, I often wonder if Jesus didn’t at least occasionally bash his thumb with a hammer. Jesus also entered the temple courts and was furious when he saw a mini-mall set up in His temple: Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a ‘den of robbers’” Matthew 21:12-13 Notice that Jesus didn’t start the sentence with “If it isn’t too much trouble... ”? He was righteously indignant, backed it up with His own Word, and tossed everybody out on their tails. Does that sound warm and fuzzy to you? It is high time men resume their rightful positions as spiritual leaders in the home, community, marketplace, and the church. It begins and ends with us, gentlemen. We don’t need a comfortable pew or a cup of coffee and a hymnal. After all, Jesus didn’t even have a place to live: Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Luke 9:58 And following Jesus Christ was never intended to be safe or boring, was it? Taking up the cross isn’t easy. It’s big, heavy, and hard to move—and it takes a real guy to carry one. So let’s recap: Jesus was a man’s man, not a watered down wimp. It’s time to reclaim the masculinity that embodies the very Person we follow. Following Jesus was never intended to be safe or comfortable. The cross is heavy and it takes a strong man to carry it. Denying ourselves requires sacrifice. Period. We have to determine what we want the church to look like and create an environment that will draw in thrill-seekers. Lord knows we have enough “pew-sitting bless-me sponges” in the grandstands watching. There’s a reason why the Bible is called the “sword of the Spirit” (Eph....