Are you a Christian because your parents are?

Your hands grip the steering wheel at 10 and 2. The heat of the engine fills the car as tires squeal around the track. You’re in the race of your life. Animated crowds watch your every maneuver.

You pass several opponents on the inside track and swerve behind the lead driver. You’re gaining speed by drafting – taking advantage of reduced wind resistance by driving closely behind the other car.

Several laps around the track and you maintain your drafting position. You consider steering around the leader and accelerating toward the finish line. You can nearly taste the victory, but you still need to make your own move and take responsibility for your own outcome.

Drafting is good and beneficial for a time, but it’s never meant to be a long-term strategy.

Some parts of our lives are like drafting. We find a comfortable spot and settle in because it’s easier to cruise behind other people than forging our own path. We’d rather follow the work of someone else leading the way instead of getting out in front of the pack ourselves.

Drafting is good and beneficial for a time, but it’s never meant to be a long-term strategy. Drafting alone can’t win races. It can only take you so far.

Are You Drafting Spiritually?

Spiritual drafting — benefitting from someone else's faith — is helpful in seasons. But at some point, we need to step up and take responsibility for our own relationship with Jesus.

Too often, we’ll think our faith is strong because our parents’ faith was, or because we attend church frequently with friends. Salvation is a gift from God to each one of us, and we each have to choose to follow Jesus for ourselves.

While your family and friends can point you in the right direction, if you don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus — if you’ve never asked Him into your life or spent time with Him on your own — you’ll only go where your loved ones lead. Your spiritual direction becomes tied to someone else instead of to Jesus.

No One Can Take Your Next Step For You

Relationships can influence our faith, but our faith should never be dependent on our relationships. Jesus, not going with the grain, is the focus of faith (Proverbs 18:24).

Relationships can influence our faith, but our faith should never be dependent on our relationships. 

There’s a difference between benefiting from good relationships with other Christians who can help you take your next steps, and depending completely on other people to make decisions for you. No one can take your next step for you. Someone else cannot follow Jesus for you (Proverbs 3:5-6).

The deciding factor for the direction of your life is not what someone else does, but where Jesus leads you (Psalm 118:8). In the race of life, we progress by continually listening to Jesus and taking the next steps He gives.

What’s your next step? Ask Jesus what He wants you to do next and do what He says.