Sunday Stories, May 20, 2018

In the spring of 1984 Keith and I decided we couldn’t live without each other.  We married in the winter of 1985. By the time 1986 began, we had owned and sold twenty-one vehicles! This pattern has continued throughout our 33 years of marriage. Some people complain they can’t remember where they parked.  I struggle to recall WHAT I parked! 

Before I said, “I do,” God allowed me an opportunity to see into the future. Shortly after our engagement, Keith sold his perfectly reliable truck and purchased a questionable 1967 Pontiac Firebird.  We were college students in Bethany, Oklahoma and I was confused over his decision. His response, “If I just get it to Arkansas, dad and I can fix it.” When that silly heap quit, you could see “Welcome to Arkansas” in the rearview mirror. Yes, it got us to our home state, but we were still 135 miles from his dad’s.

There was a time when each salvage yard visit, in search of a particular part, held the hope of a refurbished piece of history. However, Keith has the heart of a tinker and quickly loses interest in the details it takes to recreate a classic. As quickly as the motor hums, it’s for sale and will soon become the next guy’s dream. 

We have a dear friend that shares Keith’s love of motorized horsepower. But, where Keith is a good mechanic, Bill Frye is an artist of the highest order. Bill does NOT tinker. He is a meticulous, serious, perfectionist and his success in the sport of Late Model Dirt Track Racing reflects this.  Keith spent several years as a member of Bill Frye Motorsports. After each race, the GRT #66 was taken apart, cleaned, adjusted, oiled, logged and readied for the next day’s activities. The objective was to send the race car back onto the track better than it had ever been before. 

Bill’s standard of excellence isn’t limited to the track.  He also loves the heavy metal of yesteryear. When his hauler backs into his workplace, and he unloads a beat up old jalopy, a painstaking process to dismantle and rebuild begins. As each bolt is removed and every chip of paint is sanded off, the engineering of the past is weighed. Is it still the best option? If not, it is replaced, new and improved.  With patience and precision, the finished product becomes better than it ever was before. 

Keith likes to say, “God does to people what Bill does to cars.”  You are more than the odometer reading, the dents and the dings, or the places you’ve been. When God restores, He makes all things new. Better than ever is His specialty.

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert. Isaiah 43:18-19

Chasing the Wind,

Gretchen   

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