Prep Time: To Illustrate

NASCAR Crew Chief Decides Against Cheating

It was a small adjustment that could make a big difference. Sure, it was against NASCAR rules, but almost everyone else was doing it. So crew chief Tim Shutt crawled under the car of Mike McLaughlin, who races on the NASCAR Busch circuit.

“Joe [Gibbs, team owner] is adamant that we don’t cheat,” says Shutt, then a new believer who encountered Christ at a retreat for participants in the racing industry. “Most teams figure that as long as you get away with it, it’s not cheating.”

“I said to Mike that morning, ‘If we’re no good in practice, I’ll put this piece—the illegal piece—on. Probably 30 other teams are doing it.” I was justifying it.

“I got up under the car, I got halfway through putting it on, and that verse, ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God,’ came flashing in red in front of me, and whoa, that was it. I said, ‘I’m leaving this up to you, God.'” Shutt didn’t put the piece on the car.

McLaughlin won the race—Talladega, one of the biggest races of 2001.

“When we won, the first thing that came to my mind was that verse,” Tim says. “God wanted to show himself to me.”

Source: Victor Lee, Sports Spectrum; reprinted in Men of Integrity (May/June 2002).

Professor Makes the Grade

I needed more study time before my final exam in the youth ministry class at Hannibal-LaGrange (Mo.) College. When I got to class, everybody was cramming. The teacher, Dr. Tom Hufty, came in and said he would review with us before the test. Most of his review came from the study guide, but some things he said I’d not heard. Dr. Hufty responded they were in the book and we were responsible for everything in the book. We couldn’t argue with that.

Finally it was time to take the test. “Leave them face down on the desk until everyone has one, and I’ll tell you to start,” our professor instructed.

When we turned them over, to my astonishment every answer was filled in. My name was written in red ink. The last page said: “This is the end of the exam. All the answers on your test are correct. You will receive an A. The reason you passed the test is because the creator of the test took it for you. All the work you did in preparation for this test did not help you get the A. You have just experienced grace.”

Dr. Hufty then went around the room and asked each student, “What is your grade? Do you deserve the grade you are receiving? How much did all your studying for this exam help you achieve your final grade?”

Then he said, “Some things you learn from lectures, some from research, but some things you only learn from experience. You’ve just experienced grace. Years from now, if you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, your name will be written in a book, and you will have had nothing to do with writing it there. That is the ultimate grace experience.”

Submitted by Denise Banderman, Hannibal, Missouri.

Nurse Stands By Her Conviction

In the operating room of a large, well-known hospital, it was the nurse’s first day on the medical team. She was responsible that all instruments and materials were accounted for before completing the final steps of the operation. She said to the surgeon, “You’ve only removed 11 sponges. We used 12 sponges, and we need to find the last one.”

“I removed them all,” the doctor declared emphatically. “We’ll close the incision now.”

“No,” the rookie nurse objected, “we used 12 sponges.”

“I’ll take the responsibility,” the surgeon said grimly. “Suture.”

“You can’t do that, sir,” blazed the nurse. “Think of the patient.”

The surgeon smiled and lifted his foot, showing the nurse the twelfth sponge. “You’ll do just fine in this or any other hospital.”

When you know you’re right, you can’t back down.

Source: Dennis Waitley, “Your Absolute Bottom Line,” Priorities magazine; submitted by Randy Willis, Petersburg, Pennsylvania.

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