Podcast Update -- June 24, 2008
This week's podcast is a bit different in that there is no middle segment. I'm trying to shorten it a bit, but not at the expense of leaving out topics of discussion. Let me know what you think of the format change.
You can listen to the podcast here, and/or if you have iTunes you can subscribe to it here. As always, please let me know what you think, and thanks.
Here's the text for this week's edition.
And welcome to this week's edition of the Diecast Dude's (Mostly) NASCAR Positively Persnickety Podcast. It is Tuesday June the twenty-fourth 2008, and this week I'll be getting into the subject of what's going on when you're wondering what's going on.
But first, a look back at the weekend that was in NASCAR.
Going into this past weekend, I was quite hopeful that the Sprint Cup race out my way at Infineon Raceway would serve as a catalyst to renew my enthusiasm for if not all things NASCAR, at least enough to wake me from this borderline coma the season thus far has put me in. My thought process was the road course format would lend itself handily to side-stepping if not necessarily alleviating most everything that has vexed the new car this year, and with the number of talented road course drivers on hand would bring about an exciting, competitive race.
Oh foolish man that I am. The only difference between this race and most every other race this year was the element of turning right in addition to left. Other than that, it was the same old same old. Get out front, stay out front. No one ever challenging for the lead. Some shuffling back in the pack, but in terms of genuine racing action that was it. Oh what a thrill.
Although I am anything but a Kyle Busch fan, I do give credit where credit is due. He worked his way through the field to advance forward, took advantage of the first caution during the race to put himself up front, and then kept himself there for the remainder of the event. Yes he's a talented driver, etc etc etc yatta yatta yatta. There. Said it. Moving on.
This season is getting very old very quickly. NASCAR's inability to admit the new car needs a ton of work before it's genuinely competitive is self-destruction at its most apparent... that is, apparent to all except NASCAR itself. The fan's patience is running out. The entire reason we fell in love with the sport in the first place is because of the action on the track, with a multitude of cars in genuine contention for the win, swapping places and making moves. We're not getting that now. We're not getting anything now other than a case of wondering who we can sue to get those three to four hours back we just spent watching a high-speed parade. It's ridiculous. And if it keeps up, it will be very, very easy to dump this sport and find something else to do with our spare time.
A triple shot before the next segment.
Part of this process I've been going through the past few weeks, where I've been working toward moving ahead to where I need to be by getting back to fundamentals, has involved a fair amount of introspection. In the course of doing so, I've noticed that something which has been plaguing me for literally decades is still unfortunately hanging around. Namely, my ability to psyche myself out. It's sort of the flip side of outsmarting yourself. I don't know how much this applies to other people, but my guess is I'm not the only person who gets themselves in this situation.
The number of head trips and guilt trips we subject ourselves to is rather alarming. A lot of them are illustrated in some fashion in the Bible. There's the leper syndrome, where we walk around telling ourselves and others and for that matter God to stay away because we're unclean and unworthy. There's the Pharisee syndrome, where we tell God how thankful we are to Him about how great we are and we're so much better than others, even others who believe as we do yet obviously aren't all that because they're messed up or are messing up. And there's the Jonah syndrome, where we're so consumed with fury against God over something in our lives we run as fast as we can from Him, ignoring and/or denying Him in our lives and the lives of others. Indulge me while I look at that for a bit.
Most of us have at least some familiarity with the story of Jonah and the whale. God told Jonah to go to a city called Nineveh, which was part of Assyria which was an enemy of Israel, and lay down the law: repent and turn away from its evil or God would clean its clock. Jonah immediately got going... in the other direction as he boarded a ship headed elsewhere. A violent storm came up. The sailors looked at each other and said okay, which one of us brought this on. Jonah 'fessed up and said my bad; throw me overboard and you'll be fine. The sailors thought this would be a rather rude way to treat a passenger and tried to keep going, but the storm got worse. Finally deciding better thee than me, they threw Jonah overboard and the storm went away. Meanwhile, God brought a whole new meaning to the term sink or swim by sending a giant fish -- the Bible doesn't actually say it was a whale -- to swallow Jonah and continue on its merry way... which just "happened" to be in the direction of Nineveh.
Jonah, who was not three French fries short of a Happy Meal, took stock of the situation and said okay Lord, You've got my attention. God told the fish since there wasn't any Pepto Bismol on hand, get rid of that upset stomach the old-fashioned way, which it did by Technicolor burping Jonah on shore. God then said let's try this again, shall we; go to Nineveh and preach how it has two options: repent from and just say no to its wickedness, or else I'll go Godzilla paying Tokyo a social call on the place. Jonah got wise and did as he was told. And the people of Nineveh listened, from its king on down. They changed their ways. Everything's good, right?
Wrong. Jonah was madder than a Hillary Clinton devotee at the end of this year's primaries. God asked Jonah if he felt there was justification for the attitude. Jonah replied yes. "You saved them, Lord, just like I knew you would!" Bit of an odd mindset there, but remember Nineveh was Israel's enemy. Jonah was worked up enough about being the one who had led Nineveh to repentance, thus in his mind guaranteeing the destruction of Israel, he literally wanted to die.
Jonah set up camp outside of Nineveh and waited to see if perhaps God was just joshing about that whole walk away from the dark side or you're toast deal. He wasn't. Nineveh wasn't reduced to baby powder. Meanwhile, Jonah felt like baking powder because of the heat, so God grew a vine to give him some shade. However, the next day God killed off the vine. Then, seemingly adding insult to injury God asked Jonah if he felt he had a right to be angry about the vine. You bet, replied Jonah. And then God got in the last word.
"Jonah," He said, "you've gotten worked up over the vine that you had nothing to do with. You didn't plant it, you didn't make it grow, and you didn't kill it off. Now Nineveh is so huge it has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people that don't know their left hand from their right. (A side note here: I suspect he's referring to children, not that there were that many people in the city that dumb. But I digress.) It's also loaded with innocent animals. Don't you think that's something I have the right to get worked up over?" And that's where the story ends.
It's hard to genuinely fault Jonah for feeling the way he did. He saw things in the immediate and the present as they related to him and to his people. Nineveh is the enemy of my people. The last thing I want is for it to remain standing. Because what happens if they do, and then decide to march their armies into Israel? Which they eventually did. So he had a point.
But so did God.
It's natural for us to wonder why something is happening to us. It's just as natural for us to get angry over the dark times that happen to us. We don't deserve them, or at least we don't believe so. And it's no stretch to be upset when happy times come to someone else while we're either stuck in neutral or facing troubles. We wonder how does the other person rate. How come they get to fly high when we're just as if not more deserving, yet here we are up to our neck in problems or issues or fears or grief. It's not fair.
Which is quite true, actually. It's not.
So where's the love of God in all this? For that matter, where is God in all this? Is there a God in all this? Is there a God at all?
To which the answer is, is there a particular reason we see ourselves as the be-all and end-all of the universe?
It doesn't mean we're not loved when we get slapped around. It does mean there is evil and death in this world, and both will come calling. There's no escaping that. Not if you're human, anyway.
It doesn't mean we're not loved when we don't see the big picture and how everything fits together. It does mean Someone does, and They know the pain involved because They too felt the pain when They were on this earth.
It doesn't mean God doesn't love us because as we see it He takes care of someone else better than He takes care of us. It does mean He does take care of us whether we see it that way or not.
It doesn't mean when I'm where I am lately, which is stressed out and burned out and taking it out via assorted rants and rampages, He's turned His back on me or is tying me to the whipping post because I deserve thirty-nine lashes. It does mean I should stop allowing it and the circumstances causing it to consume me, and that instead I should listen to the music.
The sweet, sweet music that sings of a Love so far beyond all this garbage on earth it can't be described in mere words.
Only heard.
Let's hear it together.
That concludes this week's podcast. Take care, everyone, and we'll get together again next week.
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