Don’t Be Shy
Car show season is upon us. You may think you aren’t ready yet, that your car needs paint/parts/polishing. You may be scrambling to finish within a two-month timeline, but as long as your car is drivable, you may want to consider being ready a lot sooner. Try two minutes, or however long it takes to read this.
Car folks of all stripes sometimes avoid bring their cars out to shows, meet-ups, and even casual cruises because they think the car isn’t ready. They don’t join car forums because the car is still a work in progress. They don’t talk to other owners, because until their car is done, it’s not worth talking about.
Does anyone really believe that the car is to blame here?
Fear of embarrassment, rejection, or ridicule drive most of this reluctance. As humans, there’s something completely terrifying about interacting with other humans, which leaves us being pretty shy when it comes to talking about things we should love talking about.
Yet talking with other humans is how we grow, whether in a community of car folks or of Christ-followers. Talking about it, Paul said in his letter to the Romans, is how we truly know what we believe, and encourage that belief in other people. “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” (Romans 10:9-10)
Being with people and talking about things is wildly effective in anything from Bible study groups to psychotherapy, presidential cabinet meetings, and support groups. There’s nothing magical here. Only the presence of imperfect people talking about important things.
Talking is what Jesus did the most of. He talked while feeding and healing people. He talked to people who were considered unworthy or unclean. He talked about how he talked his way through temptation (Luke 4:1-13), citing Scripture to combat the sneaky persuasion of the devil, and then talked to his disciples about it to teach them how to respond to temptation. He even talked about how to talk to God (Matthew 6:9-13).
Talking to someone about cars can be a little scary. It takes some intentional vulnerability, but that’s where the good stuff is. That’s where growth happens. And, that’s God’s purpose for us. God doesn’t want us sequestered in our own little rooms, becoming perfect, Christ-following creations on our own, and he doesn’t want us to wait until our perfect car creation is complete before we share it with anyone. He intended for us to grow together.
You may have heard this famous passage: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17) However, you may not have heard the next verse: “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” We aren’t expected to become complete by ourselves. God made us complete through Christ’s sacrifice, and he wants us to join with other new creations and be “Christ’s ambassadors.” We were made to be new creations so we could talk to people about seeking God and becoming new creations. We are new creations together.
One of the saddest phrases in the car hobby is usually found in auction material for vintage cars. A listing will say something like, “One of 173 believed to still exist.” The word “believed” indicates an unknown. We don’t know how many of that car still exist because individual examples were kept hidden. Their owners didn’t register the VIN. They didn’t take them to meet-ups or cruises, or join forums or ownership groups. They were shy.
Only one solution exists for counteracting shyness, and fortunately – or unfortunately – you can probably guess what it is. Get out there. Show up. Talk about the part you need that’s still floating in a container ship somewhere. Pop the hood. If your engine’s dirty, ask about a recommendation for a good engine degreaser. While you’re at it, talk about your faith. Show up to church. Ask about a Bible study. It won’t take you two years or even two months to be ready for this. You can decide that you’re ready now. That won’t even take two minutes.
