Arlene and six-year-old son Matt only two or three days a
week. However, life overall is a lot more comfortable than
it used to be, comfortable in the sense of having a sense of
peace and security that comes with following Christ. A talk
with Mark reveals that his understanding of three key
elements of his relationship with Christ is crucial to his
success:1) Feeding his relationship with Christ. "You have to feed that relationship or it starves to death," Mark said. "And I fed it enough to get it going, and then I would be off racing and it would starve. That came and went for a number of years." Now, he is among the most consistent attendees of Bible Study and chapel with MRO. "He has probably missed less than any driver," said MRO's Max Helton. "I think his overall walk is maturing because he is feeding the relationship Publicly, he hasn't said a lot, because he is a very shy person.
Helton recalled a recent Saturday night when the group was
discussing God as a provider. "Everybody was talking about
physical things God provided," Max said. "Then Mark said,
'I'm thankful for all the things He's given me, but the
biggest thing He has provided is His grace and mercy.' He
was talking about the spiritual rather than the physical."2) Prayer Life. Ask Mark what keeps him close to God, and he immediately answers, "My prayers." "In my prayers every day or every night, I ask Him to keep His presence in my mind," Mark said, "so that I don't forget, so I don't become 'in my nature.' When He's there, I'm different than when He's not there. The more He's there, the more I train myself to act and react as if He was, as if He's present in my mind. You learn, and you change, and your habits change. If he's not present in my mind, then I'm just like I was before I got to know Him. But if I can keep that presence in my mind, then I act and react differently. It has made a difference to pray. If I keep praying for an answer or a decision I need to make, sometimes it comes right away, sometimes it's two months down the road; but one day it's not a problem any more. There's a clear decision for it. That's an example of how it has helped me manage my life and try to make the most out of each day instead of being miserable every day trying to make the most out of the future."
3) Accepting God's unconditional love and acceptance. Like 'Big John' in the classic folk song, drivers today often "sell their soul to the company store." "In this business right now you sell yourself and you sell your team and you sell everything to your sponsors, based on performance," Mark said. "And you sell yourself as a winner. If you don't produce that, you lose." As in "lose your ride." In NASCAR's 51st season, it isn't the good ol' boy circuit anymore. It's big business, big money, and big pressure. While it used to cost less than a million dollars a year to run a team, a sponsorship now can run seven-million plus.
"There's so much pressure to perform in the sport right now, and to get results, that it's not any fun like it was when you started," Mark said. "It used to be fun, but it's not much fun anymore. The only time it's fun is when you're getting those results, and you don't get them all the time because there's so many good people in the sport and it's so. The schedules are back breakers. The demands are incredible. It's about 50 weeks a year of all you can stand. So you have to be a pretty strong individual emotionally, spiritually, physically, mentally to keep it up, because it just doesn't always go good. Even if you're good, even if you're considered one of the top contenders week in and week out, it doesn't always go good."
The pressure relief has to come from somewhere, and in
recent years Mark has learned that Jesus will take the load.
"It's a lot easier to deal with a lot of pressure if you
say, 'I'm going to do my best today and my best is going to
be enough,' "Mark said. "And you learn those things from
reading the Bible. That no matter what the result is, all
you can do is all you can do. God loves me and accepts me
all the time. And that's all there was for today, and you
can go work on tomorrow; but you can't work on today anymore
because you did all you could do. And even if you made a
dumb mistake, that was all you could do that day."
Mark wants to race about another 10 years. Talent
usually starts to wane in the mid-to-late 40s, but Mark
said, "I'm in better physical shape than most. I know more
about cars than a lot of the drivers do. I believe I can do
it that long."In light of his intensity, Mark was asked if he feels successful. He paused thoughtfully before answering. "Yes, but I don't feel like I've done nearly as much as a lot of other folks," he said. "I feel like there's been a lot of great drivers, really great drivers, that haven't had the success that I've had. There's still time for me to become a lot bigger success than what I have been. I'm proud of what I've accomplished. I've accomplished it by not being under-handed, or stealing. But there is so much more that I want to do."
