The driver’s education class at my high school was one of the easiest courses available — probably because half the time we were practicing driving, and practices often involved stopping at the local convenience store for the instructor to pick up cigarettes. (Oh, the 90s!) While the class ultimately gave students the information we needed to pass our written and driving test, the best driving lesson came from my dad. When driving, he would say often, “Remember son: you control the car; the car does not control you.”
That subtle but important reminder has stayed with me all these years as I have driven cars, trucks, go-karts, Mario Kart, motor scooters, 15-passenger vans full of college students and even school busses. It has helped me avoid accidents and focus when I take a curve too fast. Maybe it’s elevated my ego at times (perhaps encouraging me not to slow down when heading into a curve), but it is the phrase I hear in my head every time I get behind the wheel. It reminds me I have some say about how this trip is going to go.
As school begins again this fall, I find myself thinking about this lesson and how I have applied it in other areas of my life. In my work as a college chaplain, I often counsel college students about what to do with the new information they’re learning in their courses like, perhaps, a piece of history or biblical interpretation from their religion class that contradicts what they were told in church growing up. At this stage in their life, they are often finding their own path, and new ideas present a fork in the road with their faith.
Naturally, most young people grow up in the backseat of the “faith car” with their parents or community expectations driving. When they come to college, however, students frequently realize that there is more knowledge and more options when it comes to their faith than they previously realized. Some of my students tell me, “But I’ve always been told it’s this way” or “if I don’t believe what my church believes, am I a Christian?” or “Will I go to hell if I think that way?”
I offer them the wisdom that I learned from my dad, “You control the direction of your faith; your past faith formation does not control you.” Engaging with Scripture and learning new ideas is how you gain the skills needed to better drive on the road of faith. You can ignore these new ideas and perspectives and let your “faith car” go in whatever direction your past told you to go, or you can choose for yourself what you believe. You can decide if you want to be stuck in a ditch believing that true Christians only think x, y or z. Or you can keep an eye out and see what detours the Spirit is inviting you to take in order to see if there’s a better way to go. Over time, your past roads may be where you want to be, but you won’t know unless you see if there are better routes to take. The only way to find out is to drive them.
The freedom we have in Christ (Galatians 5:1) allows us to take some ownership, some control, over our understanding of faith. We can play. We can learn. We can question. We can explore and change our minds, trusting in the Holy Spirit along the way. Our faith does not have to be stagnant, and it is not defined by others. So as the school year starts, my message to students is this: grab the keys and go. Take the car out for a spin.
