A Bold Request

The list of cars with external gauges is appreciably small. So it must have been a hard sell in the late 1960s when someone at Pontiac HQ had the audacity to suggest a hood-mounted tachometer. 

External gauges? Those hadn’t been on cars since car interiors were actually exteriors, like spindly Morgans and cycle-fender Frazer-Nash roadsters. But GM Designer Ron Hill pushed for it. Hood-mounted tachometers were a dealer-installed accessory beginning in early 1967, and they could be found on Pontiac build sheets later that year for GTOs and Firebirds. Upon reflection, Ron Hill recalled the exchange with humble brevity: “While I was in the Pontiac studio, I came up with the idea of placing it outside the vehicle on the hood and designed its shape. The GM patent was issued in my name.”

But you wouldn’t be reading about them today if it weren’t for Ron Hill’s courage to suggest them in the first place. He knew it would contribute to the products – and profits – for Pontiac, but he still had to summon up his courage and make such an audacious request. That kind of courage is exactly what Jesus focused on after teaching the Lord’s Prayer.

The Lord’s Prayer begins with acknowledging God’s singular sovereignty over heaven and earth, and then launches into asking a bunch of stuff from him. That’s audacious. So Jesus explained it like this:

 “Then he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.’ Then the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs. So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you…” (Luke 11:5-9a) 

This brief parable is loaded with intentional word choice that explains the relationship of asking anything of God. When you come before God, any request acknowledges “I have nothing.” It comforts you with God’s constant availability, even “at midnight,” and the fullness of his provision, when he gives you “as much as [you] need.” 

Then there’s the specificity of the “three loaves of bread.” This was actually the same request Abraham made of Sarah when three men visited him and God promised him offspring (Genesis 18:1-15). That, along with the nature of God who doesn’t want to be bothered because “the door is already locked, and my children are with me,” reveals even more about what requests people should make of God.

In the story of Abraham and in Jesus’ parable, the requests all ask for something from God to bless, edify, support, and strengthen someone other than you, for a purpose beyond your temporary, individual needs. For Abraham, asking Sarah for bread was part of a more comprehensive act of servitude toward three visitors who clearly came with divine intentions. In Jesus’ parable, serving bread to the “friend on a journey” is a picture of distributing God’s love and blessings to people in your life who need it. Jesus, who later referred to himself as the bread of life, is reminding his followers that people may be placed in your life as if they’re on a journey. They need the nourishment, direction, and life itself that can only come from God himself. But they may not know it yet. So Jesus asks you to ask God for help. 

That’s a request you can always make, and make boldly, and God promises to give you “as much as you need.” Jesus doesn’t promise you as much horsepower as you need, or as many 366-horsepower, 455-cubic-inch Ram-Air Pontiac GTOs as you need. But he does promise you inclusion in his plan to introduce his audacious blessings into the lives of people who need it, and he’s inviting you to start asking every day to be part of that plan.

Hood-mounted tachometers remained optional throughout the 1972 model year, which makes them symbolic of some of Pontiac’s best musclecar-building years. Pontiac, a marquis not known for humility, sold plenty of cars during this era, thanks to the imagery of race-inspired technology like this, and the courageous people like Ron Hill who had the audacity to make bold requests.