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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.

Prayer for the Week

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

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