Demolition Derby And The Surrender Stick

DEMOLITION DERBY AND THE SURRENDER STICK

Lydia and I went to the Demolition Derby at the 4-H Fair this past week and had a blast. I loved watching drivers take aim at each other with the attempt to demolish or disable one another. We saw some great smash ups and did a lot of laughing. I don't know much about how these derbies work, but I do know that the last car still running is declared the winner. The announcer pointed out that each driver has a long wooden stick duct-taped to the side of the car, and if for some reason he can't go on, either because he's feeling a bit woozy from getting clobbered or the car has gone caput, he simply reaches up and breaks the stick, which is supposed to signal to the other drivers that he has surrendered. No one is supposed to smash into a car that has a broken stick.

During one of the heats, a car stalled and I saw a driver reach up and break his stick. Apparently the other cars didn't see this, and so they revved up their engines and came at him full-speed and collided with the stalled car. The driver was not very happy at all. I couldn't hear what he said but I could tell that what came out of his mouth was not a word of blessing. He held his hands up in exasperation and starting waving the stick at the other drivers as if to say, "What's up with that? Can't you see that I'm out of commission here? Stop hitting me."

I suspect that some of you feel like you've been in a demolition derby. You've waved the surrender stick but the hits just keep coming and you don't know how much more you can take. As we wrap up our series called, "When Life is Hard," we're going to learn that God loves to bring out His purposes through our problems.

(From a sermon by Brian Bill, God's Purpose in our Problems, 7/25/2010)