Monday, December 14, 2015

the parable of the unburned hydrocarbons











Los Angeles in the sixties set the example of smog.  Growing up 3500 miles away we didn’t know how good we had it, the rains that populated New Jersey skies helped keep the air clean.  But on my first trip to LA, aka Smog Angeles in 1975,  I got sick.  My eyes burned, throat got sore, and whereas growing up where I did, you thought snow was grey, I found the air could be also.  Where once we were told “what you can’t see can’t kill you,” I found out like many others what you can see can.  And riding in a car with the AC on, while adding to the pollution only eradicated the symptom, you were still dying a slow death just from being there.
And on a motorcycle it was only worse.  We talk of the wind in your face, the fresh air, but many forget or weren’t there when LA meant smog, and lots of it.  Today due to cleaner burning engines, that emit much less, the air going into your engine is dirtier than the air coming out.  Clean air restrictions haven’t hit motorcycles yet, which I am not for, the laws not the motorcycles.  But on the annual toy run to Children’s Hospital, I altered my views.  If only for the 30 mile ride.  In a rider group of mostly Harleys, it wasn’t the loud exhausts.  Or the loud stereos set on distort, it was the smell of raw gas.  Unburned hydrocarbons coming from poorly tuned motorcycles.  Now any bike can emit all of the above, and with computer control you can control it better.  But the smell of all the raw unburned gas about made me sick, and I was about to blame the riders, then remembered a Christmas special sign for Harley owners.  If you buy the pipe and air box kit, they will not charge you the extra $300 to remap it on the computer. A simple 20-30 minute task of software.  The final step in the process, they don’t include in the process, I mean price,  it is ala cart.  Which explains the raw fuel smell, running too rich, which aids in an early rebuild.  The extra gas runs down the cylinder walls, effectively removing the oil there that is to lubricate it.  It is like having a cavity removed, but not having it refilled.  Problem solved, another problem created.  When will we ever get smart enough to ask questions.  While bragging about how loud pipes save lives, they add to an early death for their ride.  And the beat goes on...
But yet some of the most wonderful smells can be found only from behind handlebars.  I must admit that while castor oil emits large amounts of pollution, I love the smell of racing castor.  Means high performance bikes are near, a much different odor than the raw gas on Saturday.  But I refer to a ride on a spring day in the hills.  Riding through orange groves, and the smell of orange blossoms permeating the air.  The speed dictating how fast the smell embraces you, and you embrace it.  A short ride later in the mountains, and the smell of pine.  Again refreshing, but a different attitude all together.  Almost intoxicating, and when at higher altitudes with thinner air, it can be.  The smell of hamburgers on the grill...ummm.  It seems that all living things, us included, give off odors, it is the fragrances we tend to remember, rather than the odors.  Then, even riding on more, down into the desert presents another type of fragrance, the best time is spring when it is in bloom.  Summer brings the odor of overheating, never a good thing, no matter where or when.  And while riding in the midst of all the fragrant wonders, one small dose of offending air can ruin it. 
The next time you let the dog out in the morning, see how they smell the air to see what went on last night.  Their sense of smell, 400 times ours, gives them insight to the surroundings.  Where we scan the horizon, they sniff it.  Today at 39 degrees at 655am, you could smell how clean the air is after a rain shower, with a trace of wood fires mixed in.  After the rain the air is so clear and clean, and refreshing.  Highlighted by rides among the orange groves, or up in the mountains in the forests.  Rain cleans the air, and brings us a new fragrance to the day.  Jesus does the same thing for our lives.  The stench of death permeated our lives due to sin at one time, only we didn’t know it.  Born into the odor, we were used to it, until Jesus offered us life. Free from sin and the odors that came with it.  He cleaned out the sin, replacing it with love and forgiveness, and soon the senses we had were heightened.  We saw sin for what it is, and how it lingers.  We now saw life, and the fragrance found in it.  The orange smells, the pine odors all tell of life, smog smells of death.  Unburned hydrocarbons, and most of us were like that, never running or living up to what God had created for us.  It took the remapping of our lives to remove the sin, to tune us up, and have us running the way we were designed.  A true born again experience, finding power and glory we didn’t know existed.  If only it could keep the rain out...
But God promises the rain will fall on the just and the unjust.  The air is cleaner, the plants are greener.  The earth accepts it like grace, it rejuvenates it, brings it back to life.  If only those of us who ride could ever see all the benefits, rather than an afternoon of clean up after riding in it.  But God’s grace is there for all.  And like some who never get remapped, their bikes never run as they could or should.  With an illusion of more power, with it being just that.  It takes the creator of the bike to know how to tune it best, just as we need to turn to our creator.  Who can only be reached through Jesus Christ.  Who gives his spirit to guide us.  Through the sunny days and rainy ones.  Where we learn to see all God has for us, not just what we want.  Or lust for.
Call it the parable of the unburned hydrocarbons.  We all need a tune up in life, and being in tune with the spirit brings that life.  We may be running rich, and burning out without knowing it.  Spending to much for energy, but never getting all the power.  Or too lean, not enough fuel, too much air.  Either way you will burn out too early.  The prefect is when Christ dials in your life.  When you are remapped to run in the spirit, being in perfect tune with God. And it is included when you are saved.  Loud pipes may save lives, but need to be remapped.  It should not be an option, shame on those who use it as a profit center.  Only Jesus saves, and with him you get it all.  And on last Saturday morning, while riding behind all those unburned hydrocarbons, I was reminded.  The fragrance of Jesus was infringed upon, but how would they know if they weren’t told?  We all want clean air, do we all want Jesus?  How do you tell someone they need to be remapped, and their bike too?  Again the spirit, and today many are answering the call.  Clearing their lives of unburned hydrocarbons,and finding the aroma of life in him.  Like the fragrance after the rain, he cleans us up, and leaves us pure.  Maybe a ride through the orange groves this morning, call it a church service for the ride, to clear out my head.  And sinuses.  But yet the smell of racing castor tempts me....for now I will bask in the fragrance of life in Christ.  Where when it is well with my soul, it is well with everything else.  I can almost smell the pines as I head up towards Palomar....and I can still smell the orange blossoms. 
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com