Sep
19
2011

The Crash That Changes Your Life

An article by Matt

Over the weekend I found myself thumbing through June’s Newsweek when I came across a story about NASCAR racer Jimmie Johnson. The article was called My Favorite Mistake: Jimmie Johnson, with a name like that, how can you not read it? Johnson tells the story of a crash he had in 1994 at the Baja 1000, and how it changed him… and quite possibly saved his career and his life.

Johnson finishes the story with this:

That accident was the final in a series of mistakes I had made leading up to that point. I was being too aggressive, not finishing races. I was not looking so good. I had so much pressure to perform. I was the young guy who came in and ran the fastest lap, but I’d crash or break very early.

After the crash, I was just sitting there, staring at the vehicle, internalizing the way I raced. That was my second big wreck of the year. Why did I find myself in this position again? I was scared to death what the car owner would say when he saw his truck. The whole process, the fear I had running through my veins, flipping out—those things hit me deep and changed me as a driver. I needed that wake-up call. Overnight, it changed me from being the young and dumb hot shoe to a thinking-man’s racer. Before, I couldn’t win championships. Now, I can. I was the hare. I’m the tortoise now.

I can’t read that and not think about the hundreds (thousands?) of pastors across the country right now on the verge of a crash. Every day when I look at the stats on this blog, one of the most consistent search term themes relates to burn out in ministry. While we often try to hide our crashes, embarrassed by what we see as failure, I think that there is great value in sharing our stories with one another, in an attempt to keep our brothers and sisters from making the same mistakes that we had.

Today, I want to do something a little different. I want to share our stories with one another. Tell us about your crash… tell us what you learned, tell us what you are doing differently post crash. I will share one of my stories in the comments… will you share yours with us?

Tell us about the crash that changed YOUR life.

http://www.churchthought.com Matt Steen

My first crash happened several years ago while I was still in Atlanta. As a youth pastor, I took it on myself to be responsible for everyone’s spiritual development and to fix all their problems. The weight that I cared, and the responsibility that I felt for everyone’s struggles and shortcomings took me to one of the lowest points of my spiritual life until I came to a place where I realized (through the swift kick in the rear from one of my mentors) that I am not Jesus… and I need to stop trying to be.

Ten years later, I still struggle with all this, but I am far more aware of my tendency to head in this direction, and have people in my life that are looking for this in my life.
http://twitter.com/beckyalexander1 Becky Alexander

Here is my account of crashing: http://www.beckyalexander.tv/2011/07/22/shot-out-of-the-sky/