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    Take the Flag: Following God's Signals in the Race of Your Life
    Take the Flag: Following God's Signals in the Race of Your Life
    Take the Flag: Following God's Signals in the Race of Your Life
    Ebook117 pages1 hour

    Take the Flag: Following God's Signals in the Race of Your Life

    By Rob Fuquay

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    About this ebook

    The spiritual life is often compared to a race. Pastor Rob Fuquay sees a parallel between the flags used in auto racing and the signals God sends us in our fast-paced lives.

    The purpose of Take the Flag is not to turn readers into race fans but to help them become stronger disciples of Jesus Christ by paying attention to the signals God gives us each day.

    In this Bible-based, 7-week churchwide series, Fuquay uses the flags from auto racing as a way to discuss different aspects of our life of faith:

    • Green flag (start): How do we start our journey of faith?
    • Yellow flag (caution): The decisions we make can sometimes put us in danger. How do we learn to heed God's caution?
    • Red flag (delay): Finishing well involves pit stops. How does God help us get the most out of these breaks?
    • Blue flag (yield): Each of us may run our own race, but we also need to respect others. How does God help us focus on others' needs?
    • Black flag (disqualification): What happens when our own violations take us out of the race, and how does God help us get back in?
    • White flag (final lap): As we head toward the finish line, how do we steer according to God's will?
    • Checkered flag (victory): If we persevere—navigating the hazards, managing the pit stops—then victory is ours. But how does God want us to experience victory?

    This book and its companion DVD will captivate your entire congregation and engage them in an exciting adventure of spiritual growth.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUpper Room Books
    Release dateNov 1, 2016
    ISBN9780835815802
    Take the Flag: Following God's Signals in the Race of Your Life
    Author

    Rob Fuquay

    Rob Fuquay is the senior pastor of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. He has served various congregations with his gifts of strong preaching, leadership development, and visioning. Rob is the author of The Passion Play: Living the Story of Christ's Last Days, a six session Lenten study based on the Oberammergau tradition, A New Reformation: From Luther’s World to Ours and The God We Can Know, a 7-week study designed for the entire congregation to explore the “I Am” sayings of Jesus found in the Gospel of John. He is also the author of Which Way, Lord: Exploring Your Life’s Purpose in the Journeys of Paul on how to discern and follow God’s leading.

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      Book preview

      Take the Flag - Rob Fuquay

      TAKE THE FLAG: Following God’s Signals in the Race of Your Life

      Copyright © 2016 by Rob Fuquay

      All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews. For information, write Upper Room Books, 1908 Grand Avenue, Nashville, TN 37212.

      Upper Room Books website: books.upperroom.org

      Upper Room®, Upper Room Books®, and design logos are trademarks owned by The Upper Room®, Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved.

      At the time of publication all website references in this book were valid. However, due to the fluid nature of the Internet some addresses may have changed or the content may not longer be relevant.

      Scripture quotations not otherwise identified are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

      Scripture quotations identifies CEB are taken from The Common English Bible and are used by permission.

      Scripture quotations identifies KJV are taken from the King James Version.

      Scripture quotations identified as RSV are the author’s paraphrase: Rob’s Standard Version.

      Cover design: Marc Whitaker/MTWdesign

      Interior design: Perfect Type, Nashville, Tennessee

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Names: Fuquay, Rob, author.

      Title: Take the flag : following God’s signals in the race of your life / Rob Fuquay.

      Description: Nashville : Upper Room Books, 2017.

      Identifiers: LCCN 2016006364| ISBN 9780835815789 (print) | ISBN 9780835815796 (mobi) | ISBN 9780835815802 (epub)

      Subjects: LCSH: Christian life. | Spiritual formation. | Automobile racing—Religious aspects—Christianity.

      Classification: LCC BV4501.3 .F86 2017 | DDC 248.4—dc23

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016006364

      I dedicate this book to my parents,

      Bob and Julie,

      for establishing my race of life on the values of

      honesty, humility, and hard work

      and who continue to show me

      how to run well and finish strong!

      CONTENTS

      Acknowledgments

      Notes

      About the Author

      INTRODUCTION

      YOU’RE IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT

      Imay be going out on a limb here, but if the apostle Paul were alive today, I think he’d be a big fan of car racing. Why do I say that? Because Paul had an obvious fascination with the racing of his day. In his first letter to the Corinthians, notice the way he illustrates the spiritual life: Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it (9:24). He often spoke about the race of faith. And look at how he sums up his life in his letter to Timothy: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith (2 Tim. 4:7).

      There’s no doubt Paul witnessed footraces, and obviously he saw a larger meaning in them. In this day and age, when life moves at breakneck speed, why wouldn’t Paul be attracted to the thrill of car racing? I know I am and, like Paul, I can easily see symbolism in this modern-day sport. Auto racing can help us describe our lives. One day we will cross a finish line. The engines will stop. But what are we racing for? The aim of this book is to help us think about that question.

      I didn’t start out as a car-racing fan. I was five years old, growing up in North Carolina, when I went to my first race with a friend whose dad was a big fan. All I remember of that experience was clamping my hands over my ears, trying to block out the roar of the engines, and then having a headache that lasted three days. Not exactly the way to make a kid fall in love with the sport.

      Yet all that has changed since I’ve served churches in the two biggest auto-racing cities in America: Mooresville, North Carolina, and now Indianapolis, Indiana. Mooresville is about thirty miles north of Charlotte, which most people consider the home of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing—of course more popularly known as NASCAR. Yet Mooresville is where most of the NASCAR race teams locate their garages and offices, and many drivers live in the surrounding area of beautiful Lake Norman. A Mooresville water tower declares it’s Race City USA!

      During my time there I got to know drivers, team owners, and people involved with various aspects of racing, such as crew teams, mechanics, and suppliers of car and engine parts. I learned more about stock-car racing and began attending races. From Mooresville I moved to Indianapolis, which, of course, is known for one of the biggest racing events in the world, the Indy 500.

      It’s easy to tell the difference between IndyCars and stock cars. IndyCar features open-wheel racing; their wheels extend outside the car body. The wheels on stock cars are located under the fenders. IndyCars go significantly faster than stock cars because of their light weight and low-to-the-ground design.

      There’s lighthearted jesting between fans of the two series. After I moved to Indianapolis, a new friend gave me a greeting card that depicted two guys in ball caps and overalls standing by a shiny automobile. Below it was the caption, Ever wonder how NASCAR got its name? Inside the card one fellow says to the other, That’s a nasss car. Yep, that’s a real nas-car. I got a good chuckle out of my friend when I read it aloud with my own Southern drawl.

      Over the years I’ve grown in my appreciation for car racing and all the traditions that go with it. One that especially intrigues me is the sport’s use of flags to send signals to the drivers. It’s amazing to think that, for all the sophisticated engineering that goes into today’s cars, the racing world still sticks with this age-old form of communication. The use of flags in competition can be traced to bicycle racing in France in the 1860s, and they became a common sight when car racing was born in the 1890s.

      Historians have tried unsuccessfully to trace the origins of racing’s most famous flag, the checkered flag, but they speculate that perhaps someone improvised with a checkered tablecloth to signal the end of a race. Other flags eventually came along to send different messages to the drivers: start, yield, caution delay, disqualification, final lap. However the use of flags began, they’re obviously practical. Early racing, especially, was a dusty affair, so drivers could see the flags through the haze. Flags also speak boldly amid the deafening noise of the race.

      It’s no giant leap to garner greater understandings from this symbolic form of communication. God too is signaling to us amid the bustle and noise of our fast-paced lives. As I reflected on the racing flags, I began to see how their messages correspond to the important moments in our spiritual lives as God seeks our attention. And so in this book I will be using the flags of car racing as a jumping-off point to discuss different aspects of faith:

      The Green Flag (start): How do we start our journey of faith?

      The Yellow Flag (caution): Our life decisions can put us in peril on our journeys. How do we learn to heed God’s cautions along the way?

      The Blue Flag (yield): All of us may run our own race, but it’s also essential that we respect others. How does God help us focus on other people’s needs?

      The Red Flag (delay): When life throws us unexpected and unwanted interruptions, how does God help us get the most out of these stops?

      The Black Flag (disqualification): What happens when our own violations take us out of the race, and how does God help us get back in?

      The White Flag (final lap): As we head to the finish line, how do we steer according to God’s will?

      The Checkered Flag (victory): If we persevere—navigating the hazards, managing the pit stops—then victory is ours. But how does God want us to experience victory?

      If you are a racing fan, I hope this book will give you

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