This past Saturday was to be a big race at Charlotte Motor Speedway for Kyle Busch.

The winningest driver in NASCAR history was preparing for it not by hurtling down a track at breakneck speed but by sitting in a racing simulator.

Sadly, a case of pneumonia turned septic, and within hours he was dead at age 41. Our prayers are for his wife Samantha and two young children.

After winning a race the week before in Dover, Delaware, a Fox Sports reporter asked, “Why do these moments never get old, Kyle?”

“Because you never know when the last one is,” Busch responded. Isn’t that the truth!

His reputation, that he “only cared about winning,” and his sharp-tongued bad-boy image was something he embraced. He was the king of hubris.

Hubris is defined as arrogance or overconfidence. It may have been just a role played by “Rowdy” Busch, but he certainly pulled it off convincingly!

Do you recall reading Shelley’s sonnet “Ozymandias” back in high school? Ozymandias was the Greek name of the Egyptian pharaoh Rameses II.
Outside his mortuary temple at Thebes stood two massive statues of himself, each cut from a single block of granite. Shelley was inspired to write the poem when an Italian adventurer, Giovanni Belzoni, was hired by the British Museum to move one of them to their vaults.

It was no cakewalk. Just the broken head and torso of one of the statues weighed 7.25 tons! So English society was abuzz in 1817 when they heard the new acquisition was en route.

The theme of Shelley’s poem is the hubris of those who imagine themselves invincible and immortal. The poem concludes, “And on the pedestal these words appear: ‘My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’” Then the punchline. “Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Western society seems to have exchanged hard-won accomplishments for ill-gotten notoriety. But King David nailed it when he said, “Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.” (Psalm 144:4)

Half my life I’m breathing in – growing in physical strength, receiving education, job opportunities, new relationships. But life’s tide turns, and I find myself expelling my breath – losing mental acuity and physical agility, saying goodbye to friends, giving away precious keepsakes. Sigh.

And when I actually make my exit? Even the most outstanding among us leave an impact on our world equivalent to a fading shadow.

Busch’s gravestone will probably have his name, birth date and death date – with a short dash in between. His short dash was composed mostly of left-hand turns. But the sudden stop is the killer.

Billy Graham wrote, “Jesus Christ was the Master Realist when He urged people to prepare for death, which was certain to come. Do not worry, said the Lord, about the death of the body, but rather concern yourself with the eternal death of the soul.”

So, “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.” (Proverbs 27:1, BSB) “Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2, BLB) “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.” (Acts 16:31)

Because you never know.

Jabe Nicholson of Starkville knows the world may be falling apart but God’s plan is falling in place. Reach him at [email protected] or www.uplook.tv.

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