This past weekend Angela and I went to the west side of the state to watch her dad compete in a national drag-racing competition. It was my first experience at an event like this, but boy, was it memorable.

We drove in at 8:15 AM on Saturday morning. We parked the truck next to my father-in-law’s hot rod trailer. To my astonishment there must have been over 500 trailer-bed/mobile homes/campers set up in lines that literally stretched over a half-mile. When I wanted to use the bathroom facility, I had to walk or jog about six-tenths of a mile just to get there.

Anyway, if you’ve never been to an event like this, here’s how it works: There are like 10 divisions going on and each division gets called up one at a time. There are only 2 tracks that are in use, so you can do the math: Over 500 cars, each doing a time-trial before the actual racing event takes quite a bit of time. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the 2 days I spent there.

For Angela and I, the main event was obviously watching her dad race. His car did the ¼-mile in times ranging from 8.094 to 8.113 seconds (That’s over 160 mph at it’s fastest). In 2 days we spent approximately 24 hours at the track and we saw him race 3 times. That’s not a misprint. The math of it all actually works out pretty easily if you estimate: He raced for a grand total of 24 seconds and we were there for 24 hours. That means for every hour we were there, we got to watch him race for 1 second.

So, in the spare time, we did an assortment of things. We played Cornhole, we ate food, we read magazines, and we watched other cars race. After sitting around for close to 7 hours on the first day I figured God probably had some kind of lesson for me to learn from the experience. I took away 2 big lessons from this weekend:

#1) I learned the importance of PATIENCE. It’s something I lack for the most part, but this weekend gave me plenty of practice at being patient. “Love is Patient” is the first part of the verses (1 Cor 13:4-13) that we hear so often at weddings. Being patient goes hand-in-hand with love. It’s the first way love is described in that famous passage.

#2) I need to be comfortable with who I am. The people I saw were definitely unique. The whole racing environment was a culture I wasn’t used to seeing: There were plenty of tattoos, an assortment of mullets, a plethora of people with missing teeth, an inordinate amount of bandannas, quite a few Confederate flags (at least more than I’m used to seeing around here), and an awful lot of smoking. I’m not used to seeing those things in the environment that I usually am in. However, I also saw a ton of hospitality, kind-hearted smiles, helpful neighbors, endless laughing, and families enjoying the event together.

Through it all, I noticed how comfortable people seemed to be with who they were. They didn’t seem to be putting on a show for anyone. The people were there to have a good time, watch some racing, get a few thrills, and then go home. They seemed unconcerned about their appearance, their clothes, or their actions. All-in-all it was encouraging to observe a crowd of people who were comfortable being themselves.

Too often in my own life and maybe in the lives of the kids I teach, I see an underlying issue of insecurity. A desire to fit in. A fear of doing, or saying, or looking the wrong way. And it’s too bad, because I’m pretty sure life isn’t meant to be lived that way.

I’m not saying that I’m going to go out and become a drag-racing junkie, but I am saying that it’s good to be comfortable in your own skin regardless of what others may be thinking. And by the way, towards the end of the weekend, a pair of dragsters screamed past me at over 300 mph. They clocked in at a 4.61 seconds for a ¼-mile. They went so fast that my whole body shook. I admit that I verbally said for the 1st time in my life: “Whooo…eeee!!”. Maybe I fit in with that crowd more than I thought!!