NASCAR Nation – Part 2

On Monday, I posted a quote from Delta’s Sky Magazine.

Last summer (July 2008), I posted my thoughts on manliness as it related to churches.

As I read the article in Sky Magazine, my mind went back to that post and the books, articles, and experiences that had led to that post.

I don’t agree with everything in the article, or even the quote I supplied.  However, the author has touched on a piece of the American Spirit that is being lost in today’s culture, and is lost entirely in a lot of American churches: Adventure.

As the author points out, America was populated with people who wanted adventure and who wanted to break from the mundane control of the governments of their homeland.  Whether it be the unbridled passion of religious freedom, the lure of the “New World,” amnesty from racial/religious or other form of oppession, or more recently the pursuit of financial freedom . . . People who come to America are hard-working, adventure-seeking, passionate, crazy people.  Anything less is unAmerican. In the early days, you would die if you weren’t.  I personally believe that even today, there’s a bit of that spirit that passes on genetically . . . and if it is not nurtured, the individual spirit dies.

As I stated previously, I don’t know exactly how that will look for us, but a little bit of that American toughness and sense of adventure is what we want to take with us to the Baltimore area.  I’m 5′-8″ and can’t even break 150lbs.  I’m a classic band-nerd white-collar professional.  The details of the NASCAR Nation are a bit departed from me, but the mundane life is still far from me.  I thrive on change and adventure.  Even the wimpiest desk-sitter has an inner drive for something more.  We believe that something more can be found in the adventure of life as a Christ-follower–not a yellow-bellied panty-waster Christian–but an awe-filled, passionate, Goose-Chasing Christ follower.