where have all the old motorcycle commericals gone?

Sometimes it seems I am on every seller’s mailing list.  I get all kinds of weird offerings, from male enhancement drugs to how to live to be 100.  Not related, but are they?  And they just don’t cram my inbox at Christmas, but all year long. One site I have not unsubscribed from recently started a blog, and although I have never bought from them, because of their ad today I will.  It featured motorcycle ads from the 1970’s, a time long ago to many, but within memory’s grasp for me.  And my riding.  Dominated by Kawasaki, they advise us to let “Kawasaki let the good times roll,” and they are very catchy.  Enticing to the point of taking a ride down to the shop just to sit on the new models and dream.  How many of us when younger did just that, staying just long enough to assure the salesman that we were interested, and when we did buy it would be from him.  My walls were covered with brochures, even my school notebooks had them stuffed inside.  While some of the less mature kept Playboy centerfolds stuffed in their books, mine were of Honda 350’s, the new BMW /5 series, and of Kawasaki’s Mach III.  Girl’s curves were OK, all right better than OK, but curvy roads leading out of town and to unknown adventures kept me sane while waiting for class to end.  BMW advertising “a ball with no chain,” to Suzuki’s “shout hallelujah get on Suzuki,” to Honda’s “follow the leader, he’s on a Honda,” all promised sunny days, curvy roads with no traffic, and the perfect riding partner with you.  But that was so long ago, and there are no longer very many ads for motorcycles on TV.  Of course Harley, Victory, and Indian all can be found on Velocity, and other motorsport related channels, but long ago they were on prime time network offerings.  Right there after Rosie told us Bounty was the quicker picker upper.  She obviously never rode, as motorcycles were a quicker picker upper when it came to dates.  Still are today.  Leave the mess for later, I’m going riding!

So let me refer you to the Bike Bandit Blog, and the 10 Most Memorable TV Commercials of the 1970’s.  These were great, and from kids riding to police chasing and stopping a station wagon to return a kid’s toy, even John Travolta rode a CB200, paying for a fill up with change, how could you not resist the urge to ride?  And so many of us did, and still do.  The good times still rolling after all these years, with many memories of riding with friends, wives, or solo, but never alone.  The thrill of the open road is a call that many have answered and thanks to the commercials can relive.  Harley asks “when did it first happen to you?”  And your answer is.....

And in response to the ads, many of us succumbed, mostly buying used bikes that needed work, and could only be ridden for a few miles at a time.  We learned mechanics, and how to reinstall master links, install plugs after cleaning, and adjust chains.  None of the good times we were promised from the ads.  But in these basic maintenance functions we became more intimate with our bikes, through bruised knuckles and bleeding fingers were learned grease, any grease stopped the bleeding.  What size band aid would fit and not impede our shifting, and jus how far 30 cents of regular would get you.  But when I bought my first new bike, a 1972 Honda CB350, for all of $825 out the door, the world of riding changed.  No longer was a ride interrupted by sessions on the side of the road, we rode until we went on reserve, filled up and rode some more.  We had become the riders in the commercials, the good times rolled no matter what brand, we met the nicest people on Hondas, and that someday when you will own a Yamaha came for many.  All because an advertisement drew us into motorcycling.

For me when friends started talking Jesus to me I blew them off.  I was having too much fun to be restricted by religion.  Too many rules and “thou shalt nots” for this guy.  I had learned of the freedom of the road, and didn’t want anyone or anything or any other God to interrupt.  The ads for religion all showed such clean cut, goody two shoes going to church, where was my long hair and leather jacket going to fit in?  Can’t ride to church anyway...or can you?  I still find Christian ads today not so much for me, as I do Christian movies.  Too pure, with no real problems like we see in the world.  Torn prom dresses, not getting accepted to State, or missing the big game on TV fall short of drugs, crime, unemployment, and financial ruin.  Real world stuff, we don’t see in ads, but hear only in testimonies.  We are told in Revelation it is by the word of our testimonies and the blood of the lamb we are saved.  We are the advertisements, the commercials for Jesus.  Each with a different testimony, giving veracity to Paul’s statement of how he became all things to all men.  He started relationships with others, the stories he could tell.  Maybe the ultimate bench racer when it came to testimonies.  And people listened then, and they listen now to ours.  Just an invite to church is so impersonal and lazy, but when you can share what Jesus has done for you....well....

And for a time I was an advertisement for Jesus.  Wore my Christian colors, Jesus t-shirt, even had fish stickers on my car.  And wondered why many would avoid me, until I stopped wearing them, and these types starting bothering me.  They were so busy prosletyzing they cared more about their argument than they did me.  It was when the spirit revealed that people will only care about how much you know, after you show how much you care that my witness became more effective.  It was about Jesus, the message the gospel, and my actions would tell more than my words.  Add in attitude, and just visiting, becoming friends, and caring can be more of a gospel message than chasing them off after reciting John 3:16 over and over.  You see Jesus calls us friends, he was a friendly guy.  Do we act like that?  Has you Jesus shirt become a warning to other so lookout and run away?  If ads got us into bike shops, what ad are you showing to tell others about Jesus?

This Sunday we will have our annual Chocolate Birthday Party for Jesus.  Bikers both Christian and non will attend.  As will those from church, met at rallies, work, and other places.  We invite them in, and they see that as Christians we have many things in common with them.  Only we have Jesus, and in our words they will see we are different.  Let the spirit change them, you just deliver the message.  One of love and courtesy, show compassion, and watch.  Jesus will do all the things your back patch or bumper sticker can’t.  We care, and I hope it shows.

Be that ad for Jesus that invites them to listen.  The spirit is calling, you just might get to be the messenger that day.  Only Jesus saves, we don’t.  Maybe I shouldn’t ask where have all the motorcycle ads gone, as each one of who rides is an ad for riding.  Just as each Christian should be an ad for Jesus.  If no one is answering your ad, maybe you need to change agencies, let the spirit  dwell in you.  Motorcycles provide a freedom that no other way can, except Jesus.  For where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.  What does your riding show others about you?  If only we cared as much about how much our lifestyle tells others about Jesus.  The only way to let the good times roll.  When did it first happen to you?

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

the two days of Christmas

Don’t you just love it when someone mentions a name and you cannot remember or don’t know it?  And the you try to weasel out of it, but only get in deeper?  Yet they know you, and worse yet, all about you. Now if I mention the name Matthew Beard, I get a bunch of confused looks. But if I mention Stymie from the Little Rascals, your ears perk up, and a smile comes to your face.  This bald headed, black kid in the bowler hat is instantly recognized.  He was funny, and fun, but also quite the philosopher.  And in one short, where the Rascals are in a field, with each rubbing a lamp making wishes, they had just been told the story of Aladdin and his Lamp, they were wishing for things.  Stymie’s request was simple, “I wish there were only two days in the year, Christmas and Saturday.”  A wish I have had many times, of times that I don’t want to end, with subtle changes.  Torches and Saturday.  The Hollister Rally and Saturday.  The 4th of July and Saturday.  My birthday and Saturday.  You pick your own days, and as kids we looked forward to both.  Times of no more pencils, no more books, no more teachers dirty looks.  Times of waking up way too early, to see what Santa brought you.  Times when all the cares of the world went away, and you put your thought process on hold.  They were days of great expectations and of fun.  With the anticipation sometimes better than the day.  It may rain on Saturday and you cannot ride, so end up bench racing with friends in the garage.  And of course a name comes up, and each one tries to remember who it was.  They may not remember the name, but they remember the event.  Or the time.  Each with a different story to tell, just like each has a wish, it’s that personal.

And Saturday and Christmas are personal.  But each for different reasons.  We look forward to Saturday from Sunday morning on.  Counting the hours sometimes while the teacher drones on.  Christmas comes but once a year, and we count the days, with the help of Christmas ads telling us how many shopping days we have left.  With some making lists and checking them twice, hoping not to forget anyone. But in the hassle of the season, brought on by families, what to get everyone, office parties, and finally the big day, we forget about Jesus.  So God in his infinite wisdom, often not interpreted because we don’t have infinite understanding, has given us two days of Christmas.  One for the Jews, one for the Gentiles, and two that Christians can both celebrate. 

So many get bummed at Christmas, Christians leading the way because the focus is off of Jesus as the Son of God.  I tire of hearing “the he really wasn’t born on December 25th,” and evidence is there to support both sides.  But a few years ago the spirit enlightened me to an understanding, one of who Jesus is, and why God has given us two days of Christmas.  Remember that Jesus is Jewish.  And that Joe and Mary were traveling to Jerusalem for a census, at the time of Yom Kippur, the day of atonement.  And Jesus was born in Bethlehem along the way.  Giving rise to many Christmas songs.  What better time for the savior to come into the world than on the Day of Atonement, to atone for all the sins we couldn’t atone for ourselves.  So the argument against December 25th has some validity.  But remember Jesus was/is Jewish, as were his parents.  And the Jews believe life begins at conception.  Go back nine months from September, and we are in December...say around the 25th?  Is it possible the Jews who don’t believe in Jesus as the messiah, or celebrate Christmas have given us insight to the day we celebrate?  And a loving God has reached out to all, both Jew and Gentile with two days to celebrate the birth of his son?  Has God presented knowledge of his son that only with divine wisdom we can understand?  He tells us the spirit reveals the mysteries of Jesus, could this be another one right in front of us we have overlooked?  Maybe a good argument, or a tool to make those who deny the 25th of December a reason to consider the truth about Jesus.  And maybe why scripture never defines the date, but only the time and the season. 

But to those who believe and are saved, we get to celebrate everyday.  Everyday in Jesus can be Christmas or Saturday.  Even every seven years when Christmas comes on Saturday, and robs those of Stymie’s persuasion of a day, we have everyday.  So next time someone starts talking down on Christmas, remember we have 365 days a year to celebrate, the world only offers one.  Or two if you count your birthdays, but don’t as we get older.  God gives us everyday through his son, and two Christmases to celebrate.  Giving the Jewish festivals new meaning as they reveal a loving God to us.  And we see Jesus in each feast.  And he gives the presents!

So Merry Christmas to all, every day!  But especially on December 25th, so the world can see the love of Christ through us on that day.  And on Yom Kippur for the Jews to see the savior we worship, the one they are still waiting on.  But celebrate Jesus everyday by living in him.  For the others to see.  They not only miss out on the real Christmas, but the blessings of God everyday.  You don’t have too, so maybe Stymie’s wish can come true and it has.  Jesus is the reason for the season, whether it be summer or winter, fall or spring.  Live it and love it, knowing that we have two Christmases to celebrate, the world only has one.  Now when I mention Jesus, what do you think of?   And now you know the rest of the story.....

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com 

just when you think you have it all figured out

We don’t have very many rules at our house, but we will let you know when you break one.  In a society that is so hung up on rules, regulations, laws, and other factors to control us, it is nice to have only a few rules to live by.  And with less rules to obey, that also leaves you with less rules to break.  Which helps keep me out of trouble.  But here are a few rules of our home, just in case you happen to visit, and want to avoid persecution, or prosecution.

Barney Fife once said the Mayberry jail had two rules, “first rule is obey all rules.”  Works here, except for variations on a theme, of which we will remind you.  Ask anyone in our family what our first rule is and they will tell you “never argue with an idiot because you will never win.”  Proven over and over by me, so don’t argue, and to take it one step further, if you never argue, you will never lose.  Somehow a lesser opponent will wear you down long before you wear them out.  Your adversary knows you better than you do.

When you come into our home, we want you to feel welcome.  That old Beverly Hillbillies invitation of “take your shoes off, set a spell, y’all come back” works here.  But really if you do make yourself at home here, we don’t have to wait on you.  And we expect a bit of courtesy if using the refrigerator.  If it looks like I might eat or drink it, avoid it.  See rule #1.  

The next rules have to do with lifestyle, aka riding.  The first is if you can’t put gas in it, I don’t want to drive or ride it.  We once owned horses that I couldn’t ride.  Those suckers knew it and my last ride was hanging on while he raced to the barn, with a cattle guard between us.  He stopped, smarter than me, maybe why I won’t ride anything I cannot put gas in.  But why would I want to sacrifice all the horsepower of two wheels for only one?  Now I admit I admire Roy Rogers racing after the crooks on Trigger, but Roy still has to clean up after him. So I’ll stick with my rule here.  With one exception, I will not give up my manhood for a Prius.  Transgender, I mean hybrid cars do not interest me.  Either one or the other.  Loud pipes save lives...please move your Prius from the fast lane at 45!

My next rule to live by is if I can’t ride there, I am not interested in going.   Still waiting for the bridge to Hawaii to be built so I can visit the 50th.  I don’t mind flying, I only find it a waste of time.  And miss out on the ride.  Talking with a man a few years ago we had been to many of the same places.  Only he had flown, and only seen the airport, and the ride to the hotel.  And anything else a preprogrammed tour took him on.  He was bragging until I started mentioning places....seems the best ones you find by yourself.  Do you really go on vacation to spend it with other tourists?

If the bike starts, I ride.  And if it won’t, jump start it.  How many starts to a trip have been interrupted at the last minute, when if you maintained your ride it would start?  And how many times has a cold morning forced you into the car, your choice, only to regret it later?  Things are different in a car, and Theresa makes fun of me when I wave at bikes passing by.  No such laugh when I try to lane split her Mustang.  Some of the best rides started out when cold, removing layers during the day, ending up in perfect weather.  And too many have ended up with “I wish I had taken the bike...” when they do.  And you can always park facing down hill if you have to bump start it!

But the number one rule around here, is really a question.  In any decision you have to make, where is Jesus in it?  Too many times we have it all figured out, or think we do, and God throws a curve at us.  Rather than get upset with him, too many folks first action,  maybe ask “where is Jesus in the decision?”  We book rooms along the rides, but have become very flexible.  The scripture tells us “as you go” share the gospel, and as you go consult God on your ride.  We have missed detours, and also ended up in situations we didn’t know about and were blessed because the spirit guided us elsewhere.  Works on the road, also when planning.  And works in everyday life.  Today we will make decisions, all based on the one before it.  If you don’t know where you are going, how will you know when you get there?  So why not consult the spirit first...and enjoy the ride.  Without worrying about it.  Constantine once said “trust God and enjoy life.”  Good advice, but then why do you worry?  Just when you think you have trip planned, the day all laid out, something intervenes.  If it somehow doesn’t fit into your box, maybe God is trying to show you something.  To draw you closer.  Live outside the box and in the spirit.  We miss times when God is trying to make a breakthrough in our lives when we don’t ask a simple question.  So, where is Jesus in your life?  Who do you say he is?  Ask yourself, you may not like the answers others offer.  Why worry when you could be blessed instead?  Nothing takes God by surprise....can you say the same?

So maybe Barney was onto something when he stated his first rule.  Jesus gave us only one, love him first and then others as ourselves.  It is easy to find fault when we are upset with ourselves.  So find peace in Jesus, listen to his spirit, and avoid the laws of man.  One law, love Jesus,  and then all other things will be added on.  So trust God, and if you want to argue with me, remember rule #1.  Sometimes I am that idiot, references upon request, and you won’t win.  So where is Jesus in your situation?  Love, a rule I wish we would all obey more. 

And anyway, I can’t hear you with my full face Arai on anyway.   Maybe the best decision was to leave the car home after all.

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com 

if the bike starts, I ride

We are spoiled here in So Cal with the best weather in the US of A.  A cold day is when it drops below 60, and the wanna be riders take the car.  When it drops below 50, they warm up the car first.  Below 40...I don’t feel so good today, think I’ll call in sick.  Yet for the rest of the US, they ride in the 60’s, 50’s, 40’s, and in lower temps.  A few years back a friend rode back to New Mexico the week before Christmas, the high being 19.  Growing up where winter was winter, and not a sub season of summer, if the bike started, we rode.  And if it didn’t, we would jump start it.  We rode because we loved to ride, only snow that wasn’t plowed, and ice kept our bikes in the garage.  We dressed for the conditions, often not very well, but yet we rode.  But looking back, there were some storms that maybe I should have sat out, but never even considered taking the car.

One 4th of July I left going over Red Mountain Pass, over 10,000 feet in a t shirt.  And came back over Wolf Creek Pass following the plow, the snow plow.  On one trip back east, I got caught in a flash flood in Ohio.  Trying to get off the road, a Mazda blocked the way, sitting with water over its hood up to the windshield.  I kept going, stopping under a gas station overhang.  As the fire engines sped past next to me, lightning had hit the bowling alley 100 feet away!  On the same trip back, just outside of Clinton, Oklahoma it started to rain.  No big deal, until the dual trailered semis started weaving in the wind...time to get off, and again another flash flood, up to the Triumph on my tank!  Finding shelter with a group of riders from Ohio in the Route 66 Museum....and then the rain stopped, but the wind continued for 290 miles to Tucumcari.   And a night at The Blue Swallow Motel.

On afternoon riding to New Jersey, the wind and rain in Texas was so bad I had to stop, and I needed gas anyway.  While leaning against my Sprint ST so it wouldn’t blow over, I saw a family huddled together in a Lincoln, the windows fogging up.  And no way would I have traded.....It rained for over 200 miles leaving Fargo.  So bad that the sides of my tire tread was scuffed.  But I made it, and when the rain stopped, took off my rain suit.  A woman getting gas saw my California plates and asked “it doesn’t rain in California does it?  Why are you riding here?”  But as the clouds cleared, the wind continued, at a wonderful 39 degrees.  Only made worse by having breakfast the  next day in Billings, Montana, same 39 degrees, and a couple on an Ultra Glide pulling up in t shirts, no jackets.  As I sat shivering drinking hot cocoa.  But my favorite was a trip to Albuquerque from Farmington with friends.  I had the only riding suit, and it was cold coming back.  Riding without it I paid the price, but George and Dave stopped a few times talking how they wished they had a suit like it.  Only to remember when they got home it was bungeed on George’s bike.  If only they had a suit they had wondered.

And of course there is last February, riding up Whitney Portal Road to 8000’, with no snow.  Dodging the melting remains, reminding us of the draught we are in.  Maybe the old song “Oh, Susanna” says it best, “it rained all night the day I left, the weather it was fine...” and why we ride.  We dress in layers, and don’t let conditions dictate to us.  The way I choose to live my life in Christ.  Too many look at the situation, and drop out.  They get upset with God for the conditions, blaming him for the rain.  “Didn’t we ask for sun?  You knew it was my day off!”  They fail to see that God is in the situations, and instead of sticking with him, they get upset with him.  They are fair weather saints, loving God as long as it pleases them, but let one little thing go wrong, and they blame him.  They live their lives not based on a relationship with him, but on the scenario they are in.  They fail to look to the cross in these times, looking to the situation instead.  Leaning on their own understanding or experience, instead of trusting in the Lord as Proverbs 3:5 tells us.  In all your ways we are to acknowledge him, and he will direct our paths.  All ways.  Maybe put another way, in Psalm 23 he walks with us through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.  After my open heart surgery my friend told me he walked me through, only I advised him “he carried me, because I couldn’t walk.”

Jesus is there in the midst of your storm today.  He won’t take you around it, but will see you through it.  Showing you love as he carries you as he has me many times.  In the spirit we see Jesus, and he is the way.  Without the spirit to guide, we lean on our own understanding...your actions today will either give truth to your words of faith, or condemn you in your denial of him.  We ride by faith, not by sight many times, but as the good shepherd, if we follow his path we get to our destination.  Trust him in the good times and you will trust him in the times of trouble.  It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.  But he built it anyway.  Before it had ever rained on earth.  How many would set out on a trip like he did, based on trust?  Consider it only took him 120 years, and he was 600 when he started.  And your problem is...

Maybe a lesson learned while putting on our rain gear in Gettysburg one afternoon.  It was pouring, and some other couples were doing the same.  One couple from Maryland talked with us.  They said the weatherman said a 50% chance of rain.  They interpreted it as a 50% chance of sun and went riding.  Behind every dark cloud the sun shines brightly.  And the warmth of the sun never feels so good as after the storm.  So if the bike starts, ride it.  No excuses.  And if you trust God, trust him.  The rainfalls on the just and the unjust, it is only those riders of the storm that ride roads other fail to try.  And never get to see the sides of Jesus those that don’t miss.  He has provided a riding suit for you, just don’t leave it bungeed to your bike.  Like the suit, Jesus is there all the time.  You just need to take the time to put him on.  Or you could always take the car...

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

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