Years ago a good friend of mine suffered a serious motorcycle accident
while performing the customary wave to a fellow rider. After the wave, although
on a ride in a non-familiar area, he thought he recognized the rider, and turned
to see if it was a friend. But when turning his eyes, his bike followed, riding
himself right into the ditch in a wide grassy median. doing substantial damage
to his bike, which was fixed, but never riding as much again. He had gotten
older and blamed his accident on old age, and not paying attention, but what
happened was perfectly natural. Where our eyes go, the body follows. Whether
on two wheels or four, it happens. I have seen men walk into poles or other
people turning their head to look at a women. As a kid on bikes we would hit
things because we were looking at them, and personally the more I stare a Botts
dots on the highway, I run right over them. Following my eyes, a direct hit.
Proving over and over again, maybe not a written law of the universe, but one
that is true, where your eyes go, what you are looking at, the rest of you will
follow.
My eyesight over the years has diminished because of riding, and age. I
can see far away, but need glasses for reading, and after a day of riding it is
worse. My focus is always on things ahead, scanning constantly as good riders
do, looking for escape routes if danger strikes, but alert enough to keep both
eyes on the road. Perhaps the best example was one afternoon in Plainfield when
BH wheelied to show off for a girl on the sidewalk. Front wheel in the air,
while looking for her response didn’t notice the parked police car he was about
to land on. Loss of license, and pride, no word on if the girl was impressed.
And for fun sometimes, we would perform a stunt we saw on The Little Rascals, in
a crowd one of us would look up, and then point at nothing, and soon the whole
crowd was following us, some admitted to seeing something, we never said a word
and mixed into the crowd laughing. But my favorite was while selling Jeeps and
AMC products back in the seventies, no mean feat, and no way to get rich.
I worked with a good friend named Mike, who was a joker, a very good one.
He sold a Concord to an engineer from Sandia Labs, the company who helped build
the first atomic bomb. When the customer showed up with his friends, about 5 of
them to see his new car, they never had a chance as Mike was in rare form. He
went into a long diatribe about how American Motors shoots electricity through
their paint so that the molecules line up, to prevent fade in the harsh New
Mexico sun. Bending over the roof, he looked at a few angles, then declared
“look, you can see them now. It’s harder on light cars, but here, take a
look.” And one after another of these brilliant engineers looked, each one of
them declaring “yes I see them.” Maybe just pencilneck humor, but each one
claimed to see the molecules line up. And another urban legend was born. I was
there, and saw part of it, breaking up in laughter forced me to leave the
showroom, followed by the other salesmen. But where the eye went, the body
followed, and in this case the mind too.
No record of a tabernacle or sacrifices were made of Abram’s trip to
Egypt. No growth in grace until he returned, and the first thing he did was
build an altar and worship God. While away looking for help in the famine he
took his eyes off of God, the only true source of all things. He was
spiritually starving although being physically fed. And when the hunger got to
be too much, returned to God. Today we would call him backslidden, and even
though he returned to the same place he had left seeking nourishment, he was
spiritually starved. Sound familiar? For when we abandon the pathway of faith,
saying we trust Jesus but seeking alternative ways, we starve. Something in us
isn’t being nourished, and although we may have things to show for it, we don’t
have God. We have sought after other things, but fortunately he stays with us.
Off the path, off the road, and out of church, he stays with us! And when we
finally wise up to seek God like we should have in the first place, it is then
we see his hand in things, and although still in the famine, we see how he meets
our needs, all of them.
When you pray in the name of the Lord, of Jesus Christ, we are praying for
all the resources his name means. All of them, everything. Just like when a
check is signed we trust the signer to honor the funds, we need to trust Jesus
because he is the author of our faith. And the finisher. Why ask if you are
going to not listen for his answer? Who wrote your name in the book of life?
Does his name mean more than just what you want? Where do your spiritual eyes
go for help? And who do you follow?
Abram finds that God meets his needs despite the famine. Paul tells us my
God will meet all your needs according to his riches and glory. Many have
riches, only God has glory. And can back it up in love. So what’s your
excuse? Where are your eyes looking for help? Now are you surprised why you
are not finding God but the other things you chase? Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
and look full in his wonderful face, and like the old song tells us, the “things
of earth will go strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace.”
There is a way out of your Egypt,which represents sin. And a way back.
His name is Jesus, and he forgives. Two friends riding took their eyes off the
road and paid the price. A group of engineers who should have known better saw
nothing, yet claimed they did. It takes faith to trust the spirit of God, who
we cannot see, but know exists. The proof will be in the evidence of when we
follow him. And hopefully not in the proof of when we don’t. Evidence that
demands a verdict. And for me, I rather be riding than recuperating. It takes
a screw up to see mercy, grace is free and without cost. Trust God today and
see where you are going. And if in New Mexico, and someone wants to show you
paint molecules that line up, tell them you already saw them. “On my last trip
to Egypt...”
“Look up in the sky, it’s a bird, it’s a plane...” setting your sights on
things on high, for that is our eternal destiny. Jesus was the first man to
come to earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. A true
Superman. Welcome back, it’s been too long. Let’s eat.
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com