Faith at 70 MPH (Building Family Discipleship on the Road)

Finding Jesus in the Chaos of Travel Sports

It’s 11:00 PM on a Friday. The trailer is finally packed, the truck is fueled up, and you are staring down a four-hour drive through the night. Your dinner was a lukewarm slice of gas station pizza, and your kids are already asleep in the backseat.

If you are a racing family, or any family involved in travel sports, you know this chaos intimately. The weekends blur together in a mix of highway miles, early morning drivers' meetings, and the relentless pursuit of getting the car dialed in. In the middle of all that noise, a quiet, nagging question often creeps in: Where does Jesus fit into this?

When you are living out of a hauler and your schedule is dictated by heat races and feature events, it is easy to feel like your family's spiritual life is on pause until you get back home. But what if the road isn't an interruption to your family's faith? What if it is the exact place where real discipleship happens?

Discipleship Was Designed for the Road

We have been conditioned to believe that discipleship requires a classroom, a whiteboard, and a quiet hour of uninterrupted study. But if you look at the life of Jesus, that is rarely how He taught His followers.

Jesus didn't disciple the Twelve by sitting them at desks. He discipled them while walking from town to town. They learned about faith while caught in a storm on a boat. They learned about provision while passing out bread on a hillside. They learned about grace while walking dusty roads.

In the Old Testament, God gave parents a blueprint for raising spiritually strong kids, and it sounds remarkably like a travel sports schedule. Deuteronomy 6:7 says, "Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."

Notice the rhythm. God didn't say, "Talk about my commands only when you are sitting in a sanctuary." He said to talk about them when you walk along the road. Discipleship was always meant to be mobile. It is a daily rhythm woven into the fabric of everyday life, not a weekly event you attend.

Don't Outsource Your Kids' Spiritual Growth

Because our schedules are so chaotic, it is tempting to outsource our kids' spiritual growth to the professionals. We think, I'm too busy, I'm too tired, and I don't know enough theology. I'll just make sure they get to youth group on Wednesday night, and the youth pastor can handle it.

But a youth pastor, no matter how gifted, only gets a few hours a month with your kids. You get the drive time. You get the late-night dinners. You get the moments right after a tough loss or a big win.

The busy schedule of a racing family cannot be an excuse to step back from spiritual leadership; it is the very arena where your leadership is needed most. You don't need a seminary degree to disciple your kids. You just need to be intentional with the time you already have.

Practical Ways to Weave Faith into the Weekend

Discipleship at 70 MPH doesn't require adding more things to your already packed schedule. It is about leveraging the moments that are already there. Here are a few practical ways to weave faith into your racing weekend:

1. Leverage the Drive Time

You have a captive audience in the truck. Instead of everyone putting on headphones and zoning out for four hours, use that time. Listen to an audiobook together, play a worship playlist, or simply ask your kids what God has been teaching them lately.

2. Pray Before the Race

Don't just pray for safety; pray for character. Gather your family by the car before they strap in and pray that they would race with integrity, that they would handle winning with humility, and that they would handle losing with grace.

3. Debrief the Weekend

The ride home is prime discipleship territory. When the adrenaline has worn off, talk about the weekend. If they had a rough race, talk about where our true identity comes from (hint: it's not the trophy). If another driver raced them dirty, talk about how Jesus calls us to respond to conflict.

Start in the Truck This Weekend

You don't have to have it all figured out to start leading your family spiritually. You just have to take the next step.

This weekend, don't let the drive time go to waste. To help you get started, we have put together a simple family devotional designed specifically for the road. Download it, print it out, and do it together in the truck on your way to the track.

Discipleship is a journey. It's time to put it in drive.