Dumb Dodge Dart

On the 18th of January of 2010 I inherited my dad’s relic Dodge Dart. It was the car I grew up in practically since my dad bought it before I was born, and it was the car I first learned how to drive in so I guess that gives me some sort of special affinity towards it or something, I don’t know. Its straight 6 engine makes it run like a truck and its ample room and positioning of parts under the hood makes it an ideal car to work on whenever it breaks down.

It’s also fairly large and so it’s great for transporting both stuff and people - I think the record is that I’ve had about 10 people inside of it at one time but that’s not including the outside for example, or in the trunk, which people have ridden in as well, like say when we’re going on a really short ride or something and we keep the trunk open.




There are times when it runs like a charm (or a lucky charm rather) and it feels great to speed along the open road with your elbow positioned so perfectly on the ledge of the open window and the wind in your face.

The kink in the steering, the 3rd gear that’s positioned where the 4th should be, and the rattling convulsions that the car breaks into whenever it hits about 65 mph keeps things interesting, and at least it feels like you’re actually driving the thing as opposed to some of these perfectly calibrated cars where the automatic transmission and cruise control will make you fall asleep faster than a Sunday morning sermon - if you’re not the one that’s preaching it that is.

One of the biggest bummers besides the fact that it drinks way to much gas ,

is that it doesn't have a CD player, which is always like one of those ‘if only’ disappointments you think about whenever you’re on a road trip. It doesn’t have any A/C either, which would be nice in San Jose, but I mean come on, you can’t be too picky.

And then there’s the times that is breaks down...

I remember a trip from Bogota once with 4 of my good friends where the car decided to get a flat tire, overheat its engine, and have its exhaust fall off all within the same trip!

And as for getting stuck in the mud – boy oh boy.

The first incident wasn’t so bad and it was actually kind of fun because it was right after youth group and it was really close to town so even though it was raining and it was like 10 o’clock at night, I rounded up all my friends and we all goofed around and made jokes as we got covered in mud while we unsuccessfully tried to push it out… no big deal.That night we all walked home and the next day I asked some random guy with a pick up truck to haul me out. He did, and I gave him 7 bucks and that was all there was to it.


The second time was a little more interesting because we got stuck a little further out of town after we had just visited an indigenous community and we had offered to take a guy and a girl that we didn’t know, back to town with us. We got stuck so bad and my car is so heavy that there was no way we could push it out so we just called a friend to try and get him to get someone who had something with 4 wheel drive to come and fetch us. In the mean time, we got to talk to this couple that we had just met and share the gospel with them. And, incidentally - this couple turned out to become pretty good friends of ours as time went on, and if you’ve read my last blog – they are actually the ones that I got the privilege to marry a few months back.

That evening, our friend in charge of pleading our case with any 4 wheel drive trucker he could find never could find anyone who was willing to come out and help us just because it was starting to rain and it was getting too late for anyone in their right mind to be willing to do anything like that. That was disappointing, but we didn’t let it get to us, and so we just walked back in the dark and pouring rain and waited until next day when I convinced someone to help me out by showing him a couple bills equivalent to about 20 American dollars.

The 3rd getting stuck instance however – now that was no joke. This time I was on my way back from a fishing trip about two hours out of town in the middle of nowhere with 5 good friends and we got stuck in some of the worst mud known to mankind. The thing about it was, that even though there were six of us who were able bodied enough to push and pry and give it our best shot, we were also all really tired from the night before (and kind of even tired of each other too haha) and we hadn’t eaten anything very significant the whole time we were on the trip and so I guess we were just a lot more prone to getting really ticked off with each other and any kind of conflict that we could get ourselves into.

And we got into one.

And we did everything we could.

We used boards, shovels, rocks, logs, jacks - you name it. We tried pushing it forwards, it would go nowhere. We tried pushing it backwards, it would go nowhere.

We tried lifting it up and putting rocks and boards underneath the tires to give it some traction – it wouldn’t get any.

Finally I was just so stressed out with all the tension going on that I got out of the car and started walking to the nearest road to see if any truck would pass by that could help us. The thing was, on our 2 hour trip out to the lake in the first place, we had only seen like 1 car the whole way and maybe 2 or 3 motorcycles, and so the odds of me finding a truck with 4 wheel drive and a driver who would be willing to help us – man, that was like trying to find a needle in a haystack or something (and whoever even came up with that saying I don’t know, but it’s a good one even though I don’t get why in the world there would be a needle in a haystack or why anyone would care – but maybe that’s the point).

Anyways, my friend Franklin he was like – what the heck are you doing man? You can’t just walk away like that – there’s no way you’ll be able to find a pick-up truck. We got to work together and do something, we gotta keep trying… and so a little reluctant to obey him - I did. Just because he was right and well, even though I really do not like getting into conflicts with people and I knew that we would keep fighting and insulting each other no matter what - regardless, I turned around and went back to the car and we got after it again.

So let me tell you about it: it was a battle of inches. One board here, another log there, another rock under that thing… and I would floor it! …3 inches.

Ok, we would say - let’s try going backwards: one jack here, another log to give us some leverage there, and everybody push while I floor it!!! 5 inches. 3 back to where we started from, BUT - 2 more in the opposite direction which would potentially give us a few more inches if we tried pushing it forward again.

… And about another hour and a half of this until finally we were able to back the car out enough of the mud hole so that we could line up some boards and logs up properly enough to give it our all or nothing shot and… VROOOOOOM!!! The car peeled out of the mud like it was nobody’s business and slid around on firm ground while the muck on the tires went flying everywhere. I couldn’t see it because I was the one putting the pedal to the medal, but it must have been the most beautiful thing to watch in the whole world, and I could feel it.

I guess you could say that at that instance in which we had previously all had urges of wanting to kill each other… when we finally saw that we had managed to get that dumb car out of that slimy mud hole man - and that WE were the ones who did it, US - the six great amigos – boy, our emotions did a total 180 right then and I don’t believe anyone could have loved my friends more than I did at that very moment. I could have kissed them NOT!!! Gross, I would never kiss a guy - that’s disgusting. Unless I was like in an Arab country or something, then I guess maybe I would you know –like to be culturally relevant or something?

But anyways, what I’m trying to say is that because of having to struggle through something together, I started to love my friends a little more than what I had before, and it was precisely because I had to struggle with them that I loved them – that they didn’t just let me walk away... and for crying in the mud! I mean it’s almost the most ridiculous thing in the world, but I even started liking my piece of junk car a little more too! Isn’t that crazy?

Even though it was specifically because of it that we got into that whole ridiculous mess of a mud hole to begin with (naturally the driver had nothing to do with it cough, cough)... for some reason on the 2 hour drive back to town I kinda started feeling a little more fond of my bulky blue, straight 6, 4 on the floor, gas guzzling, rattling convolusioned 79 dumb Dodge Dart.

And in all of this entire story, well, I'm sorry that I've been so long in getting to the point, but what I'm wanting to talk about has to do with Jacob and how he wrestled with God and how he didn’t give up on the struggle he had with Him until it was daybreak and God called 'uncle' and Jacob got a blessing.

If you want to read about this story, I would encourage you to do so. It’s found in Genesis 32, and the main point that I want to make is as follows: If I, after having struggled with my old car that isn’t worth much at all started to feel a little more fond of it - how much more fond, or in love rather, do you think we would be with God (who is worth far more than anything we could ever imagine), if we just didn’t give up on our relationship with Him even when we had to struggle through some pretty difficult things? I think it’s actually that God wants us to struggle with Him and that if we don’t want to struggle with Him, well, He won’t make us - but it’s far better if we do because maybe then He'll bless us.

The apostle Paul had this mentality concerning the things that he struggled with here on earth. He wasn't complacent, and he wasn't going to give up on his drive to know Christ and to make Him known until the day he died. To the church in Philippi he said the following, "Not that I have already obtained all of this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:12-14).

I really like how he says, "I press on to take hold of that which Christ Jesus took hold of me." God is the one who saved him, Christ Jesus is the one that took hold of him, but here it seems like Paul is saying that he is the one holding on. Holding on to what? His salvation perhaps? Granted - he, or you, or I, or anyone else can never earn our salvation through our own efforts, and I don't believe that we can ever lose it either, but we can definitely take hold of the salvation that we have attained through Christ, and perhaps we can struggle with God as we try to understand more of it. Perhaps in the process we will be blessed because of it - perhaps many nations will be blessed because of it as well (Genesis 12:2-3). In fact, that was the whole promise that was given to Abraham that was actually starting to take affect through the life of Jacob as we start to see in Genesis 32.

Jacob was later named Israel, and it was then through Israel that the whole world was blessed. How? Namely through Israel's decendant - Jesus of Nazareth (and it's kind of funny to say it that way because actually Jesus, being God, was the one that created Jacob and was also in fact the one that wrestled with him so it's just kind of weird to think about Jesus as being his decendant haha). Jesus blessed the world by offering to all who live in it, salvation by faith through grace (Ephesians 2:8). We who have accepted this salvation can bless others by sharing it with them. And who is Isael today? Who are the true heirs of Abraham? Galatians 3:28-29 says that it doesn't matter if we are Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female - if we belong to Christ then WE, US - the millions of great amigos called Christians around the world, are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

What promise?

The promise to be a blessing to many nations (Genesis 12:2-3).

I'd say that God's blessing given to us for the world is something worth struggling for.

Yeah?

Praying while Playing

Growing up as a deprived missionary kid in Colombia [can you tell by the types of clothes that we would wear??? (yikes) haha], one of the few things that I always sort of lamented growing up was the lack of possibilities I had to someday play professional football (ok, just kidding - I know I'm not that good - more like high school football).

But along with professional soccer and basketball (man I had a lot of ambition), playing American football with the Green Bay Packers was always my dream cause see, my dad was born and grew up in Title Town USA (that's short for what people call Green Bay) and every time as a family when we would go up to the States during the summer, I always remember going with my grandma to the pre-season Packer practices to catch a glimpse of the players from the best football team in the world (as of 4 days ago maybe you could have said that was debatable, but you certainly can't say that anymore).

After the Packers would finish practice, all us kids would try to get the players' autographs and some would even work their way into the privilege of holding the Packers' helmets as the players would ride back to the showers on the kids' bikes. I never brought my bike along, but I remember one day getting some second string player's autograph and thinking I was so cool. My grandma (who was a lot more persistent and a heck of a lot sweeter than I am) once even managed to get Reggie White's autograph and I still have it to this day.

It's back in my chest at home with my cheese head and all my comic books {I had Christian ones by the way - like of Jim Eliot and Corrie Ten Boome and Nikki Cruz, and even Tom Landrum [the Christian head coach for the Dallas Cowboys haha - Reggie White still hadn't come into Christian comic book existence back then (sorrows)]} and my football cards, and there in blue ink on a small white piece of paper mixed in with all that other stuff is the autograph. It says this: To Sam, Reggie White 1 Corinthians 13.

For those of you who don't know who Reggie White was, well, he was only the awesome Packers defensive end who holds 2nd place amongst all time sack leaders with 198.5 and is one of the most decorated players in all of NFL history. The well known 'Minister of Defense', as they called him, was also an evangelical minister, and had the pretty cool custom of praying with players from both our team as well as the opposing team after games.

Now, that whole topic of mixing sports with Christianity can get pretty sketchy, I know. Like for instance there are those who say that the capital "G" on the Packers helmets stands for God (WHAT?!?), and yeah, that is a little too far fetched. Actually, it's way too far fetched, just like this picture you got on your left, which is just plain creepy no matter how beautiful those Packer colors are (creepy I tell you - creepy as in Brett Favre playing for the Vikings... and that is pret.ty. creepy).

But things like praying after games - I think that's cool. I remember I used to do that with my basketball team and it was a great opportunity to show the opposing team, that win or lose - there was something more important than basketball that we lived for, and that was God.

I don't know if you caught it, but do you remember in the Super Bowl on Sunday how after his first touchdown, Greg Jennings kneeled down and made a short prayer? I don't know what he prayed, but the fact that he did, and the fact that he did it in front of 111 million US viewers alone (and that's not counting me for example - who was watching it out in the boondocks of Colombia), the fact that he did that shows that in no way is he ashamed about his faith, or about his God.

Sure, Matthew 6:5 says, "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full" ...but I don't think that was Jennings' attitude. I think it was probably a little more like Daniel's, who, despite the persecution of his time, customarily got down on his knees and with his windows opened toward Jerusalem, would give thanks to his God (See Daniel 6).

Besides that, a CNN reporter wrote in his blog that during the post game coverage, "A jubilant Jennings repeatedly told Fox's Pam Oliver, "To God be the glory."

Amen bro, I'm glad you're a Packer.

P.S. The above picture is what my sisters and I looked like after the devastating Packer loss of Super Bowl 32, but that's old news, man. WHO ARE THE CHAMPS NOW??? Yeah, I thought so.

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Works Cited:

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/07/the-super-bowls-faithy-moments/

Pictures Cited:
http://survjustice.blogspot.com/2012_07_01_archive.html
https://www.pinterest.com/assistman/green-bay-packers/
http://uglyfours.com/ugly-fours/tag/greg-jennings
http://www.packers.com/