Tuesday, July 22, 2014

the Yamaha in the sink











We all like to get a good deal, and when we do like to brag about it.  And it helps to have cash in hand when such deal is available.  But I know this guy, and others like him, that to them this good deal comes in boxes, and can only be driven home on a trailer or in a pick up, rather than driven.  He could look at boxes of parts sitting in a garage and see a car, where all I could see was wasted time when I could be riding.  And eventually some of the projects got close enough to be licensed, so they could be driven, but few ever saw farther than the end of the driveway.  And if they did, had to be pushed back.  Over the years he would have ‘55 Chevies, woodies, old Jeep station wagons, and Model T’s.  They were all bought on price, and a potential he could only see, which usually was the price paid.  Let’s see, “$450 for a 1956 F100, must be assembled, all there.”  And when going to see the truck, in numerous boxes, frame leaning against the garage, at $50 per box he thought it a good deal, and took it home.  Later bragging how he bought an F100 for less than $500-which never did get put together.  But he could honestly say he had one, just like other cars that were collectible.  His inventory and list of cars were all project cars, cars that once it took more than the change in his pocket to complete, got set aside, leaving room for the next deal, and adding to his list of collectible.  He eventually would sell some, sometimes back to whom he bought it from, sometimes a kid who had less money but bigger dreams than him.  I cannot ever remember any one project being driven, even his daily drivers didn’t go much further than church, and his wife would always follow in her car, just in case, so they cold tow him home.  And she actually got quite good at it.....
Now my old friend Brett, RIP, had a similar disease, except he bought new cars and motorcycles, and then took them part to see how they worked.  When he got his new SR500, he was a Yamaha man, later died on his 750 Seca, I went over,and finding his garage empty, thought he wasn’t home.  But finding his door open, I went in, and there he was at the kitchen counter with his new bike...the frame in the corner, the engine in the sink, and he was fascinated by it.  He later put it back together, and we rode many miles, but within the first 100 or so he just had to take it apart.  And then began to fix all the things that the factory had “cheaped out on,” and like my other friend’s cars, Brett’s bike was an ongoing project, never complete in his eyes, but always ridable.  And neither one saw the humor in their actions quite like their friends did.  Both just couldn’t let well enough alone, one from an engineering perspective, the other from a fiscal one.  One was inquizative, the other cheap.  One bought in volume, the car came in boxes, and at a dollar per box thought he was getting a good deal, the other bought new, and tried to improve on his purchase.  Me, I rather go riding.  So I did much of he time, without either one.
But both men were not unlike many of us out there, looking for the best deal.  We want to pay the least for the most, then brag about the deal we got.  Yet when it comes affairs of life, get taken for a ride every time when they could be riding.  Somewhere in our culture the opposite effect has taken place, the more I paid for something, the better it must be.  And that is where they are led astray.  How many ads do you see on TV for recovery centers, costing thousands of dollars per week, only rock stars and celebrities can afford them, yet some will gamble their life savings, and their lives on them.  How many have you known in the past that the only thing lost was their savings and further peace of mind when all was said, but not done?  How many sought the end product, but at the end were still in process, but for another session, and thousands of dollars could be healed.  Or stay on the path, or whatever, until the next problem came along.  Ending up like my friend Vince, who set out to reinvent the wheel, and every time ends up with a flat tire.  They are worse off than when they began, their lives in shambles, or in pieces, stored in boxes that someday they hope to put back together.  They are always just the next fad, or ad away from being cured, yet never quite get there.  A true work in process, just not in progress.  A choice, yet it doesn’t have to be that way.
Talking with a young girl who was a friend of a nephew, she was in social service, and out to change the world.  She dealt with addicts, unwed, single moms, and others on welfare.  Education had brought her to the conclusion that the state was the answer, when really it was the state that had kept many in that state.  She also found that high dollar, high profile centers helped too, and told me of many who could afford the endless semesters they spent there.  But when she asked what I did, and how, I shared Jesus with her.  Jesus of the Bible, Jesus who died for our sins.  Jesus who long before any social programs, before government welfare, and high end treatment centers, was healing the sick, reuniting families, feeding the poor, and giving hope to the hopeless.  She had facts and figures to back her up, I had scripture and testimony...she didn’t get it.  With her biggest problem being the cost, how could my plan, the gospel, be so successful if it was free?  My answer, in the form of a question, “why would you pay for something when it is offered free,” got a confused look.  All she could see was statistics, facts and figures.  I saw people, I saw Jesus.  We parted, both thinking the other was crazy, but I had Jesus.  The best type of crazy-the truth.
In hospital ministry, I hated to hear “well we tried everything else, maybe praying will work.”  After all else fails, try the one thing that works.  Somehow we don’t get it, we see the boxes of parts rather than the finished ride.  We buy in cheap, but never count the cost.  We lean on our own experiences, or bad advice, and then make excuses.  Our engines stay in the sink, trying to make better what the creator has already perfected.  We try to work out our own salvation, when Jesus haws already done it for us.  We struggle, then struggle some more.  Our lives are in parts, or coming apart, when we could be riding.  One cost us nothing, Jesus paid it all, the other we never can afford, and costs us everything.
Today a problem may have you on the shelf among the parts, how do I get it together?  Jesus is there, with the answer.  The way out.  He is the tow rope to get you home, the missing part to make it run, and the instruction manual to see where you went wrong.  He is the creator, the factory rep, with parts available, at prices you can afford.  So call on Him today, tell Him your situation, then sit back and watch this master tech of life take care of it.  No help from you, you may have been the cause all along, and watch as your life comes together. When programs, procedures, and plans fail, He succeeds.  He has a 100% success rate, any and all who call on Him are saved, all He asks for is your broken life, and in return makes it whole.  Who could pass up a deal like that?
Yet many do, and have credit card receipts and cancelled checks to show for it.  With the boxes still on the shelf, not put together.  In process may be the testimony, but the completion is the better one.  Some vote with their wallet, some with their head, and some with the government.  I voted with my heart, gave it to Jesus, and got life.  Abundant life, unlike any ad I ever saw.  While some are still putting it together, I am out living.  I am the motorcycle that goes by your house on the way to somewhere, while you sit going nowhere.  Today you can start the trip of life in Christ.  Call on Him, make it real.  If your parts man knows you better than your pastor, it is time for a change.  Long before we started restoring cars, Jesus was restoring lives.  Success is the completion of a well executed plan.  Jesus has that plan for you.  Are you listening?  Sorry I can’t hear your answer, I’m riding.  You can be too.  I made my choice years ago, what are you bragging about?  The Yamaha in the sink, or the one on the road?
love with compassion,
Mike
mathew25biker.blogspot.com