1 of 1

Q. What clued you in to your friendship void?

A. In the middle of a succesful Indy racing season in 1990, I overheard a fan say, "That Jon Beekhuis can really drive a race car, but he's a jerk!" That bothered me a lot. I set out to find out why he'd said that.

The only thing important to me from age 6 to age 30 was racing. I wouldn't turn on the television or eat a meal without asking myself, "Is this going to make me go any faster in a race car?" If not, I'd shift to something that would better my chances—like going to the gym, training, or reading technical manuals. I even banned my family from the racetrack because I thought they affected my concentration.

I realized that if people treated me that way, I wouldn't like it, so I really needed to learn about how to give people time and enjoy being with them.

So what did you do?

I thought, Can I think of anybody on the racing circuit who's always been nice to me without asking for anything in return? Someone I could learn from? The guy I came up with was Hunter Floyd, the chaplain for the Indy Car circuit. I wanted to learn from him about developing some basic social relationships. I thought that was what I was missing.

So I went to one of his chapel services. Hunter talked about a relationship with Christ. He also talked about relationships with other people. I thought, I've got to find out more about this: a relationship with our Creator. I think that's what I'm missing.

Jon Beekhuis is a television motor-racing announcer.

Adapted from: Wheels of Thunder (Nelson, 1997) by permission.

Copyright © 2002 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

 1 of 1

share this page

Prayer for the Week

Enable me, Lord, to forge human relationships that mirror Your faithfulness.

				Try an Issue of Men of Integrity Free! Name Street Address City/State/Zip E-mail Address No credit card required. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Offer valid in U.S. only. Click here for International orders. If you decide you want to keep Men of Integrity coming, honor your invoice for just $19.95 and receive five more issues, a full year in all. If not, simply write "cancel" across the invoice and return it. The trial issue is yours to keep, regardless. Give Men of Integrity as a gift Buy 1 gift subscription, get 1 FREE!

FREE Newsletter Sign up for the Men of Integrity Newsletter (All fields required)    RSS Feed   RSS Help