Light Unto My Path

Psalm 119 contains a great amount of content regarding the Word of God. It tells us of the reliability and the power of the Word. We can read:
103 How sweet are Your words to my taste, Sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104 Through Your precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false way.
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.

The Bible even tells us that our steps can be ordered by the Lord.  There is a challenge that we have each day, in the everyday flow of our lives, to either navigate life our own way or allow God's Word to shape our paths.  We can decide whether or not we allow the authority of the Word to govern how we walk.  Sure, there are certain routines that we have, but even in our regular schedule, we can turn to the principles of the Word to determine our actions and attitudes within those contexts.

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I want to open up with this Scripture today - it has quite a bit of significance in light of yesterday's Talladega race.  Billy Irvin had shared about this story, and it was featured on the FOX Sports website yesterday.

But, first - to the Word...Lamentations 3, verses 22-24:
"The unfailing love of the Lord never ends!  By His mercies we have been kept from complete destruction. Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh every day.  I say to myself, 'The Lord is my inheritance; therefore I will hope in Him.'  The Lord is wonderfully good to those who wait for Him and seek Him."

(That appears to be from the New Living Translation.)

That verse was posted on the dashboard of the pole-sitting car in yesterday's race - the 88 car driven by Dale Earnhardt, Jr., racing for the last time at the Alabama oval.

It was a special weekend for Dale Jr.  The speedway had given him a special gift. Autoweek reports:

Remarkably, given the success of the Earnhardt family at the massive track in the heart of Alabama, Earnhardt had no poles to show for his previous 34 attempts. But a day after proudly driving the No. 2 Rod Osterlund Chevrolet his father, Dale Earnhardt Sr., piloted to his first series championship in 1980, Earnhardt Jr. found his mojo.

After Friday’s practice, Earnhardt took a lap in the vintage car, a gift from the speedway to commemorate his contribution to the iconic track and to the sport.

And, then he earned the pole for the Alabama 500 - for the first time in 35 tries at Talladega.  Sunday was also Dale Earnhardt Jr. Day in Alabama, proclaimed by Gov. Ivey.

It was many years ago when the wife of racing great and now FOX sportscaster Darrell Waltrip gave Dale Jr.'s father a special gift.  As the story goes, Stevie Waltrip had been sharing Scriptures with Darrell to post on his dashboard.  One day, after Dale Sr. had been invited to join a prayer meeting following the death of Neil Bonnett, he saw Stevie hand Darrell his Scritpure, and Earnhardt asked Stevie where his verse was.  That began a tradition that continues to this day...from 1994 until Earnhardt's death in 2001, and now in the car of Dale Jr.  Stevie passes the Scriptures to Junior's wife, Amy, and she, by popular demand, posts them on her Twitter feed.  Today's verse from Lamentations was no exception.  And, the hashtag is #SteviesVerse.

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association website ran a feature last year on Stevie Waltrip. Her husband, Darrell, is quoted as saying: “It’s so gracious and kind of the Lord to use a little act like that and expand it to that point,” adding, “That just makes me really happy..." He said for Junior and Amy, his then-fiancee, "to have that kind of platform and to use it in that way is so valuable, so significant; it’s a great thing for the kingdom.”

When Earnhardt won the 2014 Daytona 500, his Scripture verse was Isaiah 40:28-31...the card rests on the trophy to commemorate the win.  

The story quotes Stevie as saying, "I believe God’s Word is living and powerful and life changing so I put Scriptures on the dash of his car not for any other reason than to just help him focus on what truly was most important to give him encouragement..."

This story can inspire us with a number of elements:

We can think together that God's Word is living and active.  We can consider how God wants us to keep His Word in the forefront of our minds.  I would dare say that those that are familiar with this arrangement between Stevie altrip and the Earnhardts recognize that this practice should be more than just a mere ritual or superstition.  There is life in the Word, and for the believer in Christ, it become a lifeline for us.

We can also cling to God's Word and recognize that it will not return void.  No matter what the motivation might be, that Word can mean something to so many people.  And, we should never take His Word for granted in our lives.  The Word as it is spoken, or posted, has power from which people can draw.

Finally, we can be assured that God's Word will provide us with direction, hope, and comfort.  So many of us need wisdom in our lives today; we can turn to the Scriptures, rather than human understanding, to discover what God has to say in various situations.  When we need an anchor to bring hope to us, His Word is there.  And, when we need to know the peace of God that passes all human understanding, we can turn to the Bible and find comfort.