Over my desk hangs a picture of my Bonneville stuck in the front bumper of
a Nissan Maxima. The woman hit me hard enough the bike never went down, but I
did. Driving on a suspended license she tried to escape by calling her husband
to come and say he was driving. Witnesses told a different story, the truth. I
was sitting at a light on Oakland Park Blvd. in Ft. Lauderdale early one
morning, when a car hit me from behind, pushing the driveshaft into the engine
of my R90/6. The last thing I remembered before waking up in the hospital in a
body splint was his license plate number 10WW10791, while he drove away leaving
me in a ditch. It seems being hit from behind has become a life long
characteristic for me, on bikes and in cars. In 8th grade my Dad was hit behind
in his VW, later the insurance wanted to deny coverage, the woman who hit us
said I was driving. Just before moving to California from New Mexico I got hit
from behind in my Coke pick up. Vehicles OK, but my ears ring ever since, the
hearing test afterwards describing me as having the same hearing as a man
working in a factory for 40 years. I was 32 at the time. I even got rear
ended in my new pickup, the man who hit me offering to call 911, after he
finished the call he was on when he hit me. Theresa on his first time out
riding by herself was hit from behind, two vehicles back in a chain reaction.
And you guessed it, he ran, but two young guys chased him down for the sheriff.
She also got hit from behind in our T Bird, the car crumpled, she was sore, but
the woman who hit her trying to blame her through her blown out air bags. There
have been other hits and near misses, but a common theme appears in all-no one
wants to claim responsibility for their actions. It seems that human nature
automatically causes us to blame someone else. That human nature has a name,
God calls it sin. Whether under the influence of alcohol, drugs, cell phones,
children, or stupid-when it is your fault, your decision, and you deny it, you
are under the influence of sin. And God offers you a way of forgiveness...the
law and your insurance company don’t. Maybe they know better than God what a
lousy driver you really are. Just be glad they don’t decide who goes to
heaven,and who goes to hell. In all cases, again it is the same-YOU!
An attorney friend once told me 85% of his cases would go away if people
weren’t stupid, if they took responsibility. If they just told the truth. That
same truth that Jesus promises will set you free. But yet we have become a
society of lies, big and small, even one man commenting “even when I am lying I
am telling the truth.” I watched as a Coca Cola exec told a crowded room, “if
the truth won’t work, a good lie will.” We were appalled, he was fired the next
day. The Coca Cola Company doesn’t forgive. Jesus does. I even asked a man
once, caught in a lie, “how many times do you have to lie before you are a
liar?” He thought about, and couldn’t come up with a number. How about one!?
Even Agent Mulder will tell you the truth is out there. He knows about being
lied to. But do we realize that the truth comes from within, via the Holy
Spirit? That the father of all lies is the devil? And yet we choose to
fabricate stories for our benefit....and suffer accordingly.
We are told scripturally that “we will know the truth and it will set us
free.” The truth being a person, Jesus, who came to set sinners free. Who
offers us repentance, a chance to change our ways, but the first step is to
realize you sinned. The evidence is there, the accuser is there, and the truth
is there. You may even be there...why deny what everyone else knows? The
truth. Yet many still deny Jesus. Who is “the truth, the way, and the life.”
Not a way like the Jehovah Witnesses claim. They lie. But choosing, their
choice, to believe a lie. Sometimes even knowing the consequences of sin, death
and hell. Is hell worth it just to cover up a sin, when forgiveness is
available 24/7 in Christ? Why would you not want to be forgiven?
Adam and Eve both sinned, both told different stories, but both arrived at
the same answer. “Yes, we ate, we sinned.” Going as far as they can, or we can
in correcting evil. Admitting our sin, taking responsibility for it. It took a
loving God then, it takes one now, to be saved and forgiven. In our sin he
doesn’t condemn us, our sin does that. He wants us to see our sin and ask
forgiveness. He wants to fellowship with us, yet sin stands in the way. It
stands in the way of many relationships today also. Sadly. God is not trying
to drag truth out of us for punishment, but to have us see our fallen state,
turn to him, and be forgiven. Anything else is a lie. And yet we focus on the
sin of Adam and Eve, the fall bringing sin into the world, yet neglect the
message, the true message of love, God forgiving them through Jesus. Like it
was in the beginning, and as it is today. On earth, as it will be in heaven.
It takes forgiveness to get in...what lie are you believing by not choosing
Jesus? And being forgiven?
Even Adam and Eve admitted their sin, it took a bit, they both blamed the
devil. But the truth then and now still wins out. Yet some choose perception
over truth. Even Superman stood for truth, justice, and the American way.
Maybe that was a power we need to see, that truth comes from the
supernatural-only from a living God, through Jesus. If a man born on another
planet can see it, why can’t we? And so this picture hangs over my desk. Not
the happiest picture among Hollister posters, Triumph ads, and Steve McQueen.
It hangs next to Duel, the bad trucker who chased a car to its own death. Sin
will always bring death and destruction, and all the kings horses and all the
king’s men couldn’t put Humpty back together again. Only Jesus can. A picture
of a bike stuck in the grill of a car, it took a group of men to separate it,
the bike never going down. The car was towed. 30,000 milers later I still ride
that bike. The Nissan has gone to Nissan eternity for parts. God saved me from
death that day, he saved me from sin and death almost 40 years ago. Be set free
in Jesus, let the truth into your life and see sin for what it is. Be
forgiven. His nail pierced hands proving who he is. All the evidence is there,
what will your story be? How will it end? The picture can only tell a moment
in time, your life is a film. The stories of what followed can fill many
devotions, the common theme Jesus. All God wants us to do is face the
facts....he did with Adam and Eve, maybe today is the day he does it with you.
What picture hangs over your desk? And what does it tell?
My Bonneville and I both rose again....Jesus set me free. Are you?
love with compassion,
Mikematthew25biker.blogspot.com