Trey Canard, a Christian who happens to race MX.
I married into a dirtbike family. With a husband, son, and in-laws involved with dirtbikes, I’ve been cultivating an interest in Supercross and Motocross racing, to keep up. As with any sport, after watching enough races, we each have our favorite racers. That said, there is one racer that has caught our eye, imagination, and our hearts: Trey Canard.
Now twenty-one, Trey was named Rookie of the Year for 2011. His homepage proclaims, “A Christian who happens to race mx [Motocross] not the other way around. Love what I do and have great people around me. Very thankful.” He’s not just a racer who happens to thank God from the podium after he wins. It goes much deeper for him. In an interview with The Christian Chronicle, Trey said, “I believe this is what the Lord made me for. This is my talent…my ministry, I believe, so that gives me hope. And I just really enjoy it. The good stuff outweighs the bad stuff for me.”i He considers it a ministry, too, spending time volunteering at Five8 MX Christian camps, teaching kids about God and racing; he also speaks in churches. Turns out, Trey is not the only Christian on the track, though he may be one of the more watched ones, since he is vocal about praising God and he has been having what looks like very bad luck.
Ryan Morais (#65) lands on Trey Canard's (#41) head and back. Both racers are injured.
On January 21, 2012, during the chaotic first lap of the main event, Trey’s (#41) bike caught on a tuff block cover, slowing his momentum, inadvertently causing Ryan Morais (#65) to land squarely on Trey, knocking him out and breaking his back. (Ryan was significantly injured also.) This injury is not his first major injury since becoming a professional racer; in fact, it is his fourth in the last nine months. “The injury is the fourth in a string of broken bones, starting with a broken femur in last year’s SX [Supercross] series, another busted femur in the 2011 outdoors and a broken collarbone during 2012 preseason SX testing.”ii Having sat out the first round on the 2012 season because of injury, Trey had a strong finish in the second round, only to be re-injured, very seriously so, in the third round.
Now, if you look up nearly any article about Trey’s latest injury and read the comments, you will find a lot of people questioning why a God Trey professes to follow would “let” another major injury take him out of a season.
How is Trey handling that, on top of his own physical recovery, spiritual battle, and questions about his career?
To start, Trey has a deep well to draw from. When Trey was just twelve, his dad died in a tractor roll-over while building a track for his sons to practice on. In the same interview with The Christian Chronicle, Trey said,
My dad was a huge part of my racing. He got me riding. It was his passion, and he kind of passed it on to myself and my brother…He was just a great man, a strong Christian man, and really my inspiration to be a strong character for Christ…It’s unfortunate that I lost him when I was a young kid. … When I feel down or sad about that, I’ve just got to remember that God knows what he’s doing. iii
Now, post-surgery and in a back brace, Trey is out for the 2012 season and has another challenge to remember that God knows what He’s doing. In the meantime, Trey started tweeting about the book of Job and the topic of suffering. From February 25, 2012:
Alrighty folks, #Jobseries time. Job 12:13-17 ‘With Him are wisdom and strength-He has counsel and understanding’…What I love about it is Job’s complete high view of God. He is telling them [Job's friends] that God is above all and he is conveying his utmost respect and surrender to HIM…
Trey fights to keep it real. Again that day, he tweeted: “Not gonna lie hard to see your bike, mechanic and team at the races with you not a part of it.” More recently, he shared that waiting is hard. “Another racing Saturday is here… Wish I was in N.O. That patience thing is a little challenging sometimes.”
As he spends his time healing, Trey Canard is choosing, daily, to honor God. He spoke at his home church this month and actively follows the racing circuit. As God puts Trey through the whoops of even more radical character development and a deeper relationship with Him, Trey continues to make his sport all about God…as many are watching.
Is it any wonder Trey Canard has caught my family’s hearts?
#41 Trey Canard
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Image credit: motorcycle-usa.com
allisports.com, motoverte.com
I’m humbled to read this. God be with the Jobs and the Davids and those like them who suffer so much in such a public way in order to be salt and light!
Exactly! He’s in the proverbial goldfish bowl, getting everyone’s comments and opinions on his accident & situation….(small wonder he tweeted a Job series, including dealing with the insensitive friends!), and he’s still making his life all about God, only difference is that he’s on the sidelines again.
In a time when Christians try to make their athletes/stars out to be better than they are because “God is with them”, Trey is refreshing example of having both the “God-with” and “the goods” to compete…He is not just fast, he is top 5 in the world fast! I saw him win the 250 outdoor championship on the last race of the year during the 2010 outdoor nationals. He’s not a bland rider either…he has some serious flare and raw ability. I think his relationship with God gives him the confidence to live on the edge (a necessity in modern MX competition).
He is one of our favorite riders.
On a side note, he is not “polarising” like Tim Tebow (really, “polarising” is a media fiction, as if the individual caused this and not the unreflective, black/white thinking of the masses)…but this is an example where context matters: the now 2-time SX champ and defending outdoor MX champ is also a Christian, as is the champ from 2010 (not to mention several other tier-one riders, many with full factory rides). In short, SX/MX is an oddly Christian dominated and populated sport, which also lacks the media coverage to “create” issues of contention. Thus, Canard is closer to the norm and not the exception, and benefits from having a sport with a lower profile than more mainstream competitive arenas.
Trey is nearly a modern day Eric Liddell. Perhaps when he rides fast, he “feels God’s pleasure”…
A.T., can’t tell you how much I appreciate your enthusiastic comment here. 800 words (the post) were really not enough to cover Trey, both his riding & his Christianity. That is AWESOME that you saw him in the outdoor nat’l 250 championship. AWESOME. So true: he’s got a lot of guts as a rider (I speak as a non-rider, purely appreciatieve audience person here, you understand). My husband and 6 year old son who watch AND ride think Trey’s “flare & raw ability” (YES) are just unbeatable and make for some fine riding to watch.
Good point, too–there are a surprising number of Christian riders in SX/MX. (We were floored last year to discover the MX camps for kids that are also Christian camps. Looking into it in the future for our young racer.) Surprising number of just real guys. I’d start listing them, but I should just keep this post about Trey.
Ha!
Good thought on Eric Liddell. I love it that Trey, young as he is, senses that this is what the Lord made him for, and even looks on it as a ministry coupled with his talent. Love it, and I hope he gets back on the bike after his recovery and rides like fury again.
Can’t wait to see him do it.
This brought up something that’s more of a challenge for me, based in his statement that “I’ve just got to remember that God knows what He’s doing”.
That makes it sound to me like God created this situation, that God planned for him to have all these falls and injuries.
I tend to think God lets us make our choices so, for Trey, the consequences of motocross are probably quite dangerous, it’s more the sport than God that is at work there.
However, I think God is present to our every situation and doing some soul work with Trey through a time when things aren’t going as planned can be very fruitful!
)…I also realize those questions are not necessarily answer-able 
What do you think? (I know this wasn’t the point of the article, it just popped out at me as a question!
I really liked the article – always exciting to see people really living who they were created to be – as it seems Trey is!…and continuing to live in God when things take a turn for the worse or the different!
I’m sure Trey would acknowledge your point on the cause/allow distinction of God’s activity–and insist that God did no cause certain bad things to happen…I wouldn’t impute a particular theology based on parsing an admittedly ambiguous interview statement too closely.
God’s presence in “situations” depends on what kind of presence one is referring to. God is ontologically present by virtue of His omnipresence: there is no where that he is not, regardless of situation. Experiential presence is quite another matter: that one is acutely aware of His presence is often contingent on the sensitivities of the individual, though overridden at times by God’s action. God can “feel” absent and not “be” absent at the same time. This latter mode too serves God’s sanctification goals if the standard spiritual formation literature is correct.
My guess is that for Trey, God is not merely a bit of theology he was raised with, but an ongoing experiential reality that he abides in and rides out of…
But this digresses from the intent of the post.
While Trey is young, by the grueling nature of the sport, he suffers from a compressed time frame: the average vocational life-span for a rider is not altogether different than that of the average NFL running back: rarely do you see either competing at high level into their 30′s. The media age of the top ten riders in the world is, by my lights, not over 23. Whatever time is lost due to injury in SX/MX can multiplied by 3, and then you would have a useful reference as to how much time would be lost from the average career. So, the frequent injuries are worrisome, and I would hope that God redeems all of the lost health with a modicum of future protection. At least, this is my prayer…
A.T.
Exactly. The Kevin Windhams of the MX/SX world are few & far between. Not many 32 year olds riding out there on the professional circuit.
Interesting – thanks for the info on motocross career span A.T! It is a sport I know nothing about!
To clarify, in regards to, “I wouldn’t impute a particular theology based on parsing an admittedly ambiguous interview statement too closely”…I hope it didn’t sound this way, to be sure, my comment was not meant as a critique of Trey at all – I don’t know him or his faith life!
It was simply his statement that linked with some questions that I’ve been living with lately! I was asking unrelated to Trey’s situation but simply because I know there are always thoughtful and informed people on Breakfast Reading to help me flesh out my faith conundrums
I appreciate your response A.T – I realize there is much theology behind the whole realm of God’s presence, thanks for giving me a glimpse of it!
Yes, A.T., thanks for your articulate answer to C.J.’s question. (I didn’t expect, necessarily, to meet up with any MX fans/followers on Breakfast Reading (but one should not stereotype, I know).
) Thanks for what you’ve written.
C.J., your question (& I hear you that it is something you’ve been pondering much lately) about God’s involvement in Trey’s accident…
To give a little more information, the first quotation I used from The Christian Chronicle is Trey’s response during a discussion about the frequent injuries in a sport like Motorcross– large injuries like broken collarbones or femurs to “smaller” ones involving fingers and toes. When he talks about the “good stuff” outweighing “the bad stuff”, he’s referring to the “bad stuff” of frequent injuries. If ones rides a motorbike, one must expect injuries.
My husband Glenn has said that anytime a person does a home improvement project, from putting in wood floors to putting up kitchen cabinets to installing large appliances, s/he should expect some injury or injuries. Just in the nature of doing the project.
There is that very practical, rather unavoidable, aspect of the sport. The more you ride, the more chances you are creating for injuries. Statistically speaking.
That said, I believe God’s hand to be very much in this accident. And, without getting too theologically sticky on the point, I must say that Trey is embracing God’s hand in the accident, the surgeries, the recovery, the waiting. If he does indeed believe that he is a “Christian who happens to race MX, not the other way around,” then ultimately, he will continue to grow in God-however much pro racing he accomplishes–without the bitterness that might come if it were only about MX for him.
There. Some brief thoughts on a Monday afternoon.
Thanks to you and AT both for indulging my question! Sounds like an interesting guy…and an exciting sport – I’m going to search up some of his interviews
Now that’s a great idea. Why not start with that Christian Chronicle article….enjoy! (You can also see some of his riding on youtube. That’s the really fun stuff.)
Trey Canard is one of the most exciting riders in the history of the sport. His faith allows him to ride like that! Without God, he is just another talented and determined competitor.
You better believe when he “hangs it out” he has nearly a mustard seed of faith stuck in his teeth!
The race is never over when Trey is out there. I can’t think of a better role model for my young sons as I hope they enter this sport with me.
Cactus, I can see you’re a Canard fan in a big way!
Yes, I want to see him back on the circuit, so our son can watch him (riding & living out his faith). Blessings on your own riding!
Ok, Trey fans, there is now a movie about this very time in Trey’s life. You can watch it here: http://moto.mpora.com/videos/trey-canard-revival-41-official-movie.html