Andy Martin
I grew up in a Christian home and ask Jesus to be my Savior when I was 5 but sadly that is my only memory of a relationship with God from my childhood. I guess after that Ifigured I had my “fire insurance” and I could live for myself. When I graduated from high school, I realized that I didn’t believe in God and couldn’t understand how any rationale human being could. At that time I really didn’t have any direction in my life; I was working at my parents feed mill driving truck. All my friends went off to college and I sort of turned into a bum. My parents were worried that I would continue to drift if I didn’t find something worth investing my time in.
My parents had spent many weekends early in their marriage at the races and when I was born they continued to take me. They thought getting into racing might be something that we as a family could invest in. At first I really wasn’t that excited to get into racing, I was worried about not doing well and letting my parents down. For the first 8 races at LANCO I used to hope it would rain so we wouldn’t have to
go. But then something happened after that eighth race and I couldn’t wait to get to the track.
Racing turned into all that I lived for, it was my reason to get through the week during the summer and looking forward to spring practices is what got me through the winters. If we had a good night racing the following week was ok but if we had a bad night racing, don’t talk to me all week, I would carry that with me through to the next race. Racing is what I
based my happiness on. We raced micro sprints at LANCO for four years then we got an opportunity to try racing a midget in ARDC. I was hooked because of the wingless racing; there’s nothing like it.
While racing in ARDC in our second year, we found ourselves racing for the championship. I did everything I could to win that championship because I believed winning it would bring this incredible joy and satisfaction that I had been searching for from racing. That season came down to the last race. All I had to do was make sure that I finished either in front of Donnie Trent or stay close to him if he was in front of me.
I did everything I could to stay out of trouble, trying to race smart and not take any unnecessary risks.
Half way through the feature I was sitting in fourth with Donnie behind me and I felt like the championship was mine. With about five laps to go on a restart, someone dove under me going into the first turn.
I felt like I gave him plenty of room but there was contact made and we got tangled up. I was so mad; you
can imagine what kinds of words were being yelled out under my helmet. The car was able to be refired but I was in last place and Donnie wasn’t close to me. On the restart I did everything I could (and I mean EVERYTHING) to pass as many cars in five laps as possible. When I took the checker flag I had no idea who won the championship but I was pretty sure I didn’t. I got back to the pits dumb founded by how the race went, a whole season of racing came to down to five crazy laps. I was emotionally drained. After a few minutes they made the announcement that I had won the championship by 3 points!!!! We got it.
The next morning I expected to wake up with this great sense of accomplishment, a greater sense of self worth, a feeling of fulfilled purpose…..but there was nothing like that. I felt no difference, no weight of my
shoulders, and no sense of relief. I actually felt more pressure knowing that I had to do it all again next
year to defend this championship. It didn’t make sense, what was the point of investing all this time and
energy into something that didn’t give lasting joy? And that’s when God really started to call me back to Him. He showed me that the feelings inside of me, the longing for purpose and joy could only be fulfilled by Him because He was the One that created me and He is the only eternal thing. No matter how much I tried to fill that gap with race wins or championships or whatever, it would fall short because I was trying to use temporal things to fill an eternal longing. Once I accepted that Truth and submitted to it, I realized that the only place true joy and purpose comes from is glorifying God with the life that He has so graciously
given to me.
My prayer is that everyone will answer God’s call in their life to enter into a relationship with Him through His Son Jesus. When we stop chasing the gifts and pursuing the Giver of the gifts we realize that this is all for His glory, He becomes our Number One and everything else becomes second.
My parents had spent many weekends early in their marriage at the races and when I was born they continued to take me. They thought getting into racing might be something that we as a family could invest in. At first I really wasn’t that excited to get into racing, I was worried about not doing well and letting my parents down. For the first 8 races at LANCO I used to hope it would rain so we wouldn’t have to
go. But then something happened after that eighth race and I couldn’t wait to get to the track.
Racing turned into all that I lived for, it was my reason to get through the week during the summer and looking forward to spring practices is what got me through the winters. If we had a good night racing the following week was ok but if we had a bad night racing, don’t talk to me all week, I would carry that with me through to the next race. Racing is what I
based my happiness on. We raced micro sprints at LANCO for four years then we got an opportunity to try racing a midget in ARDC. I was hooked because of the wingless racing; there’s nothing like it.
While racing in ARDC in our second year, we found ourselves racing for the championship. I did everything I could to win that championship because I believed winning it would bring this incredible joy and satisfaction that I had been searching for from racing. That season came down to the last race. All I had to do was make sure that I finished either in front of Donnie Trent or stay close to him if he was in front of me.
I did everything I could to stay out of trouble, trying to race smart and not take any unnecessary risks.
Half way through the feature I was sitting in fourth with Donnie behind me and I felt like the championship was mine. With about five laps to go on a restart, someone dove under me going into the first turn.
I felt like I gave him plenty of room but there was contact made and we got tangled up. I was so mad; you
can imagine what kinds of words were being yelled out under my helmet. The car was able to be refired but I was in last place and Donnie wasn’t close to me. On the restart I did everything I could (and I mean EVERYTHING) to pass as many cars in five laps as possible. When I took the checker flag I had no idea who won the championship but I was pretty sure I didn’t. I got back to the pits dumb founded by how the race went, a whole season of racing came to down to five crazy laps. I was emotionally drained. After a few minutes they made the announcement that I had won the championship by 3 points!!!! We got it.
The next morning I expected to wake up with this great sense of accomplishment, a greater sense of self worth, a feeling of fulfilled purpose…..but there was nothing like that. I felt no difference, no weight of my
shoulders, and no sense of relief. I actually felt more pressure knowing that I had to do it all again next
year to defend this championship. It didn’t make sense, what was the point of investing all this time and
energy into something that didn’t give lasting joy? And that’s when God really started to call me back to Him. He showed me that the feelings inside of me, the longing for purpose and joy could only be fulfilled by Him because He was the One that created me and He is the only eternal thing. No matter how much I tried to fill that gap with race wins or championships or whatever, it would fall short because I was trying to use temporal things to fill an eternal longing. Once I accepted that Truth and submitted to it, I realized that the only place true joy and purpose comes from is glorifying God with the life that He has so graciously
given to me.
My prayer is that everyone will answer God’s call in their life to enter into a relationship with Him through His Son Jesus. When we stop chasing the gifts and pursuing the Giver of the gifts we realize that this is all for His glory, He becomes our Number One and everything else becomes second.