Transcript: Eulogy for Dale Earnhardt

The following is a transcript of Motor Racing Outreach chaplain Dale Beaver's eulogy from Thursday's memorial service for Dale Earnhardt at the Calvary Church in Charlotte , N.C. :

I don't know about you but over the last couple days I've been searching for a place to anchor my hope. When times like this come, and they come for all of us, we look to a place to anchor for stability. We want to celebrate, remember and think, and think about the man that we love.

I want to encourage you to do three things in the coming days. To tell those stories, and everybody's got a Dale Earnhardt story sitting in here, and to laugh, and to remember the emotion that goes with those stories. To listen to each other as you tell those stories and to pray. And to pray. Pray alone and with each other. I think Dale would be happy that we would be laughing and telling stories with each other.

Where do we go from here? I mean each of us, we don't like thinking about this but what do we do with those who are here today? How do we anchor to something?

An author has said it better than I can say it. David Haney, who writes in his book "A Living Hope," says that to imagine that there's no such thing as absolute truth is essentially a corruption of the hope that we have in Christ. When Jesus said in John 14:6 he is the way, the truth and the life he gave a fairly strong indication to us that there are absolutes in the world. Absolutes, and that he is the standard of those absolutes. No wonder sometimes we as people of faith suffer from the symptoms of chronic loss of hope. Now listen to what he says. For hope, or our hope, is anchored in the quicksand of relativism, and what relativism is, is just where you say truth is relative it's of no one origin. For the hope of us is anchored in the quicksand of this non-absolute, I love what he says here, it has the sustaining power of warm jello.

I hope that you will find that you can anchor into a deeper hope as you look into this text that Pastor John Cozart has read today, and as we reflect on today.

But I want you to think for just a moment about the first time you met Dale Earnhardt. Remember the first time you met Dale? I remember the first time I met Dale. I had the opportunity to be a chaplain with the motor racing outreach and I'd go from track to track and I'm kind of a pastor and a chaplain that visits with the men who not only own the teams but who drive these race cars and I remember that I was very young in this ministry -- about six months going along.

And Lonnie Clouse, who was our youth pastor, wanted to take some of the kids on a camping trip in Pocono. And we were at this beautiful place and we were gonna go to the Pocono mountains and take the kids. And Taylor (Earnhardt) wanted to go on this camping trip, or I think she did anyway. And Lonnie came to me and he said, "Yo dude, I need you to take this permission slip to Big E and get him to sign it because ( Taylor ) wants to go on this camping trip." And I said, "OK I'll do it, I'll be glad to do that."

So as I started walking towards the garage I knew that meant for the first time that I was going to have be in the presence of Dale. And so as I thought about that for a minute, I said I've developed a pretty good relationship with Richard Childress' PR guy, J.R. So I said I'll do an end-run around this and I will give the permission slip to J.R. I'll have J.R. take the permission slip to Dale. It'll all be handled, I'll get the permission slip we can go on our way. So I gave it to J.R.

Twenty minutes later I came back and J.R.'s looking at me with the permission slip and it doesn't have the signature on it. And J.R. looked at me and said he wants to see you a few minutes. He wants to see me?

"J.R., would you take me to him?"

"Yeah, yeah, c'mon."

We got up on the transporter and walked these few feet to the back cubby hole that's a lounge and we are walking down what seems like miles into this dark place into the back. I said, "What kind of a mood ... what's he doing?" And J.R. said he's having lunch.

I said, "Oh great, he's killed a bear there this morning and he's sitting in the back of this thing eating a bear with his bare hands and I'm gonna be dessert because I want to take his daughter on a camping trip." So as we get to the back and J.R. introduces me. I didn't find a man eating a bear, I didn't see deer heads around the wall, I saw a man eating an orange.

I saw a man eating an orange, in a very warm demeanor, welcoming me into his presence. I didn't come into the prayers of a racing icon or an intimidating figure. I came into the prayers of a dad, a father, who was concerned about his daughter. And I know he's concerned about all his children and his grandchildren.

He asked me for the next few moments what our intentions were, with Taylor going on this camping trip. When would we be back? It's interesting because I walked out of there getting a lesson in parenthood. I told Dale, "Dale, if you're concerned about this, I certainly understand because I have got two boys and I don't want them to cross the street." I connected with him there. He said, "Yeah, yeah. That's right." He said they grow up fast and you need to spend as much time with them as you can. I walked away from there, that day, welcomed into the presence of a father.

And that's what I want you to think about today. Because ultimately, that's what on a physical level we can relate to on a spiritual level. The scripture that Pastor Cozart just read talks about Jesus coming into a situation with a family that he loved. These were not just casual acquaintances who you had in need. These were people that Jesus was intimately involved with. He was their friend. And Jesus comes into this situation emotionally and he's looking at the Disciples and he saying Lazarus is dead. He's already going "I'm glad I wasn't there." And I'm thinking: Wait just a minute.

If Jesus could have been there he would have healed him and he would not have died. Why would Jesus be excited that his friend Lazarus was gone? I stand by the car of all you guys, as I have stood by the car with Dave and Teresa before. And we always ask, God protect these men as they get into their race cars. Protect these teams in their own pit row, please. And don't let anything happen to them today. Give them a safe race. And most of the time God grants that request and we rejoice as we go home.

But sometimes he doesn't. And Jesus would look at us and say "I'm glad I wasn't there." Why in the world would he chose to miss intervening in these situations in our lives? He did it for the Disciples, I think, for the same reason why he does it for us today so that we will see and experience his greater glory. Do you catch that? Jesus moves through the passage as he meets and greets Martha and the sisters who grieving over the situation. He helps them answer the question of life that everyone of us sitting here today and watching today are asking. And the question you and I are asking today is I want to know if death is the most powerful force in the universe. I could tell you, as we read from the beginning, if death is the most powerful force in the universe and there are no absolutes for you and I to anchor are faith in, then we are in trouble. We are in deathly grave trouble.

But Jesus comes along and asks as he looks at the sister and he says I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me even though they die yet shall they live. Do you hear those words? Will you let that sink in today? Because if that is an absolute truth which standards flow from, then you and I have a hope that's more sustaining than warm jello. We have the bedrock of life for today and for ever more. That's what I want you to see today. Interesting, isn't it?

Martha says yes, Lord, I know that my brother will rise and the resurrection at the last day. But yes, Lord, I understand that Jesus is taking her to a more immediate act of faith. I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, even though he is dead, yet shall we live.

Later on the passage, in Verse 40, we have these words: Didn't I tell you that you would see God's glory if you believe? So they rolled the stone aside and Jesus looked up to heaven and said, "Father, thank you for hearing me. You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here so they would believe that you sent me." Notice that? Then Jesus shouted, "Lazarus, come out!" And Lazarus came out, bound in gray clothes, his face wrapped in a head cloth. And Jesus told the people around him, because Lazarus was wrapped in gray clothes, he said unwrap him and let him go. Verse 45 says that many of the people who were with Mary believed in Jesus when they saw this happen.

Would you believe in absolutes with me today? Because the absolute truth is Christ has provided a way for all of us. When I walked that day into the presence of greatness -- I don't have to tell you Dale Earnhardt was great -- I went with a person and found a father. See the connection here?

I don't want to liken you to Jesus. I'm not out to try and compare you with him. I'm not up here to say that Dale Earnhardt was God. That's not it at all. But I'm saying that you and I will one day will be ushered into the presence of a very intimidating force. And we have the privilege based on this passage today to have somebody do it with us. Jesus says I'll take you there. Jesus is just not a public relations manager. He is the savior of the world and he can escort you into the presence of greatness to where you will feel no fear, you will find rest for you soul and the presence of a dad. That's what you can trust. That's where you can hope. There is a savior who will take you there. I wonder if you know him?

Father, God thanks you so very much for just the mediation of your word and the hope that we find in you. Thank you so very much just for loving this family and the way that I have seen you move in their midst over the last couple of days. What a precious privilege it is to sit here in a house of worship and remember your goodness to a man that we love. And we thank you because we know that our hope does not lie in something that is empty, but in something that can save our souls. Be with us on this day for Christ's sake. Amen.