Monday, March 31, 2014

many are called, few are riding










If you ride a motorcycle, you’ve seen the face.  You may not know the person behind it, but you know them none the less.  Sitting at a light, the dad looks over at you, wishing he was you, or at least the you riding the motorcycle.  After a few lights his daydreams turn to dreams, and soon he is home....still dreaming.  Maybe at one light it is a couple, and the wife catches him looking, and when the light changes, she yells “go on!” and for a moment he dreams she meant go on, get one.  All hopes fade as she berates those who ride, and what they ride the rest of the way home.  One time it may be a family, with a little boy in the back.  He waves, you nod back, his smile growing.  After a few lights, you’ve become his friend, and then his mother interrupts, “roll up the window and pay attention.”  He rolls up the window, but continues to pay attention, to the motorcycle.  As she texts her friends...paying attention.  And if you know of what I talk, then you know the symptoms, and the people behind the faces.  Better yet, you know of them, for you will never get to meet them, unless the two worlds collide-hopefully not in an accident.
I can remember the ads, “you meet the nicest people on a Honda,” Kawasaki-let the good times roll!”  “Solo Suzuki!”  All of them pointing to a freedom I knew I didn’t have, but wasn’t told about.  And it wasn’t until I started riding, the day I become the guy on the bike, instead of the man or kid in the car, that I began to understand it.  Either you ride or you don’t, no in between to those of us who ride.  Yet there is a whole culture of those who don’t who wish they could, but don’t.  They read all the magazines, know all the facts an figures, they can tell you who won the latest shoot out, and what next year’s models will look like.  They aspire to ride, but aren’t allowed to, or sadder yet won’t let themselves.  A whole untapped group of people, under the false illusion about riding a motorcycle.  Years ago when selling motorcycles, a man would come in once a month on his payday, and sit on a GT750 Suzuki, a Water Buffalo.  He would tell me all about them, and at first I thought he was a prospect to buy one.  But after a few trips that ended with “when Janey says so...” I knew he was a lost cause. And wondered how much trouble he would be in if she knew he stopped by the shop.   This poor guy knew all the terms, the guys in the shop, and I’m sure he did the same at the Honda store, too.  He had a calling to ride, but would never fulfill it.  Sad, because he would never know about a freedom we do.  A freedom that putting on a helmet would also cancel out Janey’s voice to him.  I also remember a 76 year old grandma, a recent widow, who bought an RV, and then I taught her to ride.  She bought an RV110, a big tired dirt bike, Suzuki’s answer to the Trail 90, and then was going travelling to see her kids.  She was excited to surprise them-what a kick her kids would get out of Grandma riding.  I only hoped Janey wasn’t her daughter in law.
In every social group, there are those that aspire to fit in, but are kept out.  It happens in churches to, and to Christians.  We are all at different spiritual levels in our walk with Christ.  Some still drinking the milk that a new believer needs, some the chewable type, and some toothless from many years of eating at God’s table.  But then there are some who don’t know what you are talking about, will nod approval, and then change the subject.  They know the Bible inside and out, they know the Roman’s Road tract, and the Four Spiritual Laws.  They never miss a service, and have occupied the same place in the pew for years.  But they never make it personal, you can tell by their faces.  They are like the man eying your motorcycle, they want to, but are really afraid if they were given the chance to walk in the spirit.  They live a legalistic life, obeying God, rather than trusting Him, and will share Jesus as told, not as inspired.  They live a life never knowing the true freedom in the spirit, of not only knowing the one in scriptures, but the one who wrote them and they are written about.  Some are young, and already entrenched, some caught in middle age, and some seasoned, but still looking.  Wishing they knew what walking in the spirit was all about, but being afraid to trust God and find out.  They keep the Ten Commandments, but live a life of fear.  They maybe have a wife named Janey who keeps them that way, safe and out of harm’s way, but also out of the spirit’s way.  No one ever seeks them out for advice, only they cannot see their blindness.  The spirit of the Lord calls to them daily, yet the hardness of hearing dulls it, or they answer by spending more time in prayer, reading more, memorizing more, or attending more.  More, more, more-but less of God.
Many are called, but few are chosen.  It begins with an invite to know Jesus.  A yes or no answer.  No, you are still being called, He loves you that much.  Yes, He wants more for you.  To abandon all the laws that keep you in bondage, except for the one to love Him first, and your neighbor.  He invites you to meet the Spirit, but here is where many fall short.  They follow a teacher, a pastor, a church, or a denomination.  A substitute for the Holy Spirit, and they look at those walking with God and wonder how.  Why not me?  Why them, are they better?  NO-they just trust, where others don’t.  They never live out their aspirations, their lives based on a set of rules....never feeling the wind in their face.
If you are that man gazing, the little boy waving...stop dreaming and start riding.  Today is a golden age of motorcycles.  Take the MSF course, learn to ride.  Maybe take your kids with you, and your wife.  No communicators on my bike, we don’t need them.  We communicate with signals we don’t even know we have or are using.  In the spirit.  And life can be like that too with Jesus.  Ask him today to guide you, ask “what is your will?”  And then listen, and trust.  Faith turns to obedience, and obedience turns to trust.  And soon the new found freedom only found living in the spirit is your way of life.  Many are called, but few are riding.  Feel the freedom of Jesus I your life today.  Don’t wait until Janey says so.  Trust God, and then follow Him.  Aspire to live a life full in Christ....be one of the few, the humble-the spirit filled.  Be the one at the light who is gazed at, for the light of God is shining in your life.  And if someone offers you a ride to church, say yes.  Few are called and answer yes, I am one, what do you say?  Who are you when the light changes?
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com