all in a day's ride

Freeways-I can remember reading about them when I was young, and how they were the roads of tomorrow.  Enacted by a request from then President Eisenhower, we needed an infrastructure in case we ever went to war on our own shores, and the Interstate Highway System was created, and roads started in 1956.  I can remember how excited we were when I-78 went in, bypassing most of old US 22, going through wide open fields, two lanes wide of no stop  lights, no businesses to get off at, and very few billboards.  It took us through land we hadn’t imagined, it was out in the country in many places, and was referred to as limited access.  And for a while only sections were open, making us appreciate the freedom of no stop lights for miles, then being routed back on old 22 and waiting in heavy traffic.  New and improved used to really mean that, and freeways were just that.  And they bragged you could drive from the Atlantic to the Pacific and never encounter a stop light-bring it on!  But with no lights, and limited access, came a new standard-boredom.  Set the cruise and go.  No longer did you pass such icons as the Flagship, or Leaning Tower of Pizza.  You went past miles of openness, limited exits, and it took a while to get used to finding your way.  New street names, even new names of towns took some getting used to.  And exits now had numbers, which until only a few years ago took on the miles travelled instead of numerically in order.  Starting in the west and going east, or south to north, if you got on at exit/entrance 33, and needed to get off at exit 96, you could do the math, it was 63 miles.  Giving a “how long until we get there?” question new and more accurate answers. 

So Cal is well known for its freeways, and really to us they are just big surface streets.  Take the 78 to the Golden State, to the San Diego Freeway and you are in LA.  In places up to 7 lanes wide-for faster travel or actually the world’s widest parking lot much of the time.  The average speed in LA on their freeways is all of 17 miles per hour.  Not what you have in mind when you want to go out for a leisurely ride.  But I can get to LA form Sa Diego using surface streets and never touch a freeway.  And it may not take much longer.  A different ride, at a different speed, slowing down to get there faster.  Which brings us to last Saturday, riding our Bonnevilles.  We started the day and C and G Ford’s Open House where Andrew works.  We frequent old car shows each week end, and after great BBQ lunch, it was still early, the weather great, and we were in no mood fro freeways.  Give us slower today, a ride where we didn’t have to think much, and could just cruise.  And the Bonnies were just the ticket.  Going through Escondido, up over the hill into Valley Center took us to a different world.  No cars were out today, they must all be at the malls, for it was great.  Lots of bikes, particularly near Palomar, but it seemed all speeds were down today, and we just cruised.  On roads like Rice Canyon where on the Tiger I go 70-80 safely, today I rode 45 and felt fast in places.  I looked at the homes and trees, and saw things I miss at 80.  Suddenly I was so relaxed that shifting into 4th in places felt fast, so 3rd it was, helping to keep the speed down, but still using all my tires in turns, a much slower fast, with no traffic to concern myself with.  All in a day’s ride, with no freeways to deal with-and the 100 miles of roads lasted all afternoon.

De Luz Canyon is a beautiful ride, from Fallbrook to Temecula, or vice versa as we rode it.  Picking up elevation quick and leaving Temecula behind, soon you are on winding roads of outer suburbia, past ranches, and soon just you and the road.  No exits with signs or mileages, no signs at all, with only one fork in the road to take, actually a T, hoping the left meant Fallbrook, but not really concerned if it didn’t.  We were just out riding, away from it all, and it felt great.  No lanes to split, no traffic either way for miles, the sound of the exhaust echoing at times off the canyon walls-my kind of music.  With each of us riding our own ride, and although I was riding faster than Theresa never felt hurried, and only stopped a few times for her to catch up.  Riding our own rides, with no pressure, no schedule, and no particular place to go, and all day to get there.  A quick ride through Fallbrook, stopping at an antique store we usually speed past, and finding a treasure trove of goodies.  And then down old 395 and home-rested and worn out all at once.  A peaceful ride for an afternoon....reminding me that it is the road, and not the destination that counts.  That day the road was the destination.  Reminding us of how you can never go home, but you can still take great roads to get there.

We were on very few straight and narrow roads that day.  I still believe to this day God invented curves for motorcycles to ride on.  And for years struggled with the scripture “for the gate is narrow, and the road is straight to God.”  How could scripture mislead me so badly, why were there curves if straight was the best?  Until he reminded me one day, and again last week.  The road is straight to Jesus, only one way, so that you don’t get lost.  And the shortest way is a straight line between two points-here and heaven.  But he added curves so we can enjoy life, be tested, and have to rely on him to make, we cannot do it on our own.  For straight and narrow roads lead to a gate that is straight and narrow-the only way in.  Not like the border crossing, where 17+ lanes await you, the gate is narrow, so stay straight!  Also you get to choose the best lines when riding through life, finding like riding, if you enter the curve correctly, you can exit faster.  So choosing the right lines is important.  Too far left-oncoming traffic.  Too far right-you run off the road.  Staying the course, riding straight and narrow, and as any racer knows, turning curves into straight lines.  For curves are just a bunch of straight lines at changing angles.  So adjust you speed carefully.  Works in riding, works in life, works with Jesus.  You don’t have to ride too fast into a turn to see God like some racers do.  And although we each take a different road to Jesus, there is still only one way to heaven, and he is it!  Fast or slow, freeways or back roads, with him we will finally get there.  But the road ahead looms, and for some it is scary.  For some boring, for some an adventure.  How is the procedure, who is the destination. 

Some day we will look back at life as all in a day’s ride when we get to heaven.  Riding at God’s pace rather than rushing at ours.  Jesus never hurried, and was never late.  He never delayed, and always arrived on time, God’s time.  A fact Martha and Mary were to learn with their brother Lazarus.  Life is more than mileage markers, and roads can be taken slower and faster at the same time.  For us Saturday’s ride was all about the ride, showing us it is all about Jesus.  And that no matter what road, how fast, or how slow, when it leads to him it is the right road.  Many will offer quicker ways, detours that sound appealing, or even alternative routes.  Stick with Jesus, the only way.  When we get to heaven I don’t anticipate anyone asking “are we there yet?”  We’ll know, there will be no doubt.  Until that day, enjoy the road you are on with him, and enjoy life.  Straight and narrow leads to the gates of heaven, it is the curves that make the ride there worthwhile.

love with compassion,
Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

hair today, gone tomorrow

Blame it on the Beatles, the importance of long hair.  I was 9 when the Beatle haircut fad hit, and to a kid with a crew cut, they were a dream away.  No way I would ever have long hair.  It was still an age of what we called Greasers, who poured on Vitalis by the gallon, and slicked back their hair, but respectable people had short hair.  Men went to barber shops, women to salons, and never the twain should meet.  Women spent hours making themselves beautiful for their husbands, and the barbers shop was a place for men only.  Where no numbers were taken, you just asked who was last, then joined in.  Never in a hurry, you could either get the next barber, usually three of them, or wait for your favorite, usually the guy by the window up front.  But while waiting men would talk of men things-cars, jobs, girls, and were careful no to get too graphic when a son of one of the guys sat by him.  While they read Field and Stream, NRA Magazine, or Esquire, titles usually not found in suburbia homes, we looked at Archie, lusting over Betty and Veronica, and every time we were close to choosing one over the other, the next page would delay the decision.  It wasn’t easy being a kid where sex was a three letter word.  It was an experience that usually took place on a Saturday morning, and time for you and your Dad to hang out, even if it was with other men.  And he usually told his barber how to cut it, and when old enough, you didn’t have him tell the barber, in most cases Jerry, how to do it.  You were an adult, making your own decisions at age 12, but with your Dad watching close, you weren’t going to be a long hair, a hippie, or any other kind of socially irresponsible citizen.  And so you endured it, even your Grandparents thought you looked cute...not quite the compliment you wanted in puberty, but as you got older, your hair got longer, and soon Jerry’s Barber Shop was left behind.  And you went to a stylist, who gave you a haircut, that cost more, and always asked “how do you want it cut?”  Something you never heard from Jerry, for any good barber worth his razor knew his customers, and how they wanted their hair cut.  Some things would change, but your hair style wouldn’t.  And from the time you sat on the kid’s set stretched over the barber chair’s arms, to the time you went to a stylist, Jerry took good care of you. With a strange thing happening, although you hated haircuts, the time spent in the barber shop was really an education.  A place where men talked men stuff, read men magazines, and us little kids all wanted to grow up.  Today we get our hair styled at unisex salons...somehow just not the same.  And oh for just one more visit to smell the witch hazel, to watch a man get shaved, or to hear the sound of clippers again.  One more chance to choose between Betty and Veronica.  And to maybe find out why you couldn’t read Esquire.

Just another time that has gone away, a memory that is from another generation.  And although some barber shops are around today, we get our hair styled, I refuse to get styled, I still get a haircut.  It is what it is.  But the past few years I let it grow long, and at one time it was down over my shoulders.  Which gave it a flip after wearing my helmet, much like the Betty and Veronica style.  And since going to Maranatha had it long like that.  So when one day I decided to get it cut, up over the ears like a yuppie, no one recognized me.  I went to a Bible study after it was cut, and Doug followed me around.  A man I knew for three years came up and introduced himself.  Even Pastor Ray after church one morning didn’t recognize me, “Mike, you got a haircut!”  To which I now reply, “no I got it styled.”  And still people don’t recognize me at first, but always tell me it looks good.  Why do bald men always insist that?  But I still get grief from some, who liked my long hair, but whose job or wife wouldn’t let them.  Mickey makes fun of me, and my helmet fits loose.  It takes a shorter time to dry, I have to get it cut more often, and I have to shave more, because you can see my face.  All because of getting my hair styled.  Hair today, gone tomorrow, but it grows back, and probably will get longer again.  Not pony tail length ever again, but long enough to look cool.  And then there are the guys who shave their heads...I don’t get it.  And I really don’t get the women who like it.  If it looks so good, why don’t they shave theirs?  I never met anyone growing up who looked forward to being bald, and now we have self induced baldness.  With men looking like future beings from a 50’s science fiction movie.  For me, I’ll stick with the Cowsill’s recommendation, “fill your head with hair, long beautiful hair...”  Leaving the question, what color hair does a bald person have checked off on his license? Is none a color?  Or is bald the new blonde?  With no dark roots?

Now Samson to me has always been a great argument for long hair.  But it came to him with two problems, one he was attractive to other women, usually the undesirable ones, and it gave him supernatural strength, from God.  But when on Delilah got her hands on it, and cut it off, he lost all his power.  He was separated from God, his sin reflected in his actions.  He drank wine, forbidden, he touched a dead animal, big time no-no, and fell into lust. Losing his hair to her, and being blinded by his enemies, he finally was to fight the Philistines in one final battle.  But while they thought his hair had given him strength, it was really God, the hair being a symbol to others.  Jews still like to look for signs today  Words aren’t enough.  But the good thing was that Samson conquered the Philistines by himself, pulling down the columns and crushing them, a crushing defeat.  But being blind, he never got to see his victory, and died soon after.  God had planned to use him all along to win over the Philistines, but his sin got between him and God, and he won, just never seeing his victory.  Sin had blinded him to the things of God.  His hair had grown back giving him renewed strength, but there was a price he paid for his sin. 

Today we have Jesus to forgive us, but sin still will keep us from seeing the things of God.  God has plans for us, he tells us many times, but our actions are our own, and when we sin rather than choose God, we suffer.  God’s will will still be done, but sin has robbed us of the full victory.  Only in Jesus will we see that full victory, where no sin stands between us and him.  When we are truly forgiven, but still need to change.  Samson still lived in debauchery after his haircut, it was only when he got right with God did his true strength return.  Long hair, short hair, or bald we all need Jesus.  Cut or styled, we all sin and fall short.  It takes a loving Jesus to save us.  Remember the posters form the 60’s, “let them wear their hair as long as they like,” portraying along haired Jesus.  Some buying into it, this being the closest they got to him. Long hair represented freedom or rebellion, but never experiencing the love of Jesus.  So close, so trendy, yet not saved.  Just a haircut away from salvation.

So I prefer to say I got my hair styled.  I will keep my relationship with Jesus short or long.  For he is more than style, he is life.  Samson found out the hard way about being separated from God. Jesus makes it easy to be reunited with him.  Takes less time than getting a haircut.  Even shorter than getting it styled.  But a great walk with him takes daily shampooing, combing, and grooming.  God calls it working out our salvation.  We are saved, our lives just need touching up.  But we can all be beautiful in Christ...his love for us showing all the way down to his roots.  Samson knew the true effect of hair today, gone tomorrow.  We have the chance to be here today, and in heaven tomorrow.  Only in Jesus will we get there.  But that still leaves the question of Betty or Veronica?  And is it true blondes still have more fun?  More fun that what?  All I did was get my hair styled, or cut....and that made all the difference.  If only Samson had listened to his barber.

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

 

the ironic tragdy of things

His name was Anthony Patch, and although the key fictional figure in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s second novel, The Beautiful and Damned, he is a good reminder of how not to go through life.  Remember it was Scott who would write “the rich are different,” and the book centers on a young Anthony from age 25 to 31, and his marriage to Gloria.  Both are sad and best forgotten characters, but somehow even though the book wasn’t that great, many reviewers still today refer to it by its acronym, BAD, maybe it was the depressing nature of the characters rather than the plot.  It is set over 100 years ago, 1910, and was written in 1922, but the themes seem timeless, although time would run out for Anthony and Gloria.

Anthony was a socialite, today we call them partiers, whose main goal in life was staying in good graces with a rich tycoon in his family, so as to receive the whole of the inheritance.  Living the lifestyle of the rich before he had any money, he falls into alcoholism, depression, and the marriage hangs on barely, Anthony wanting the inheritance, and Gloria wanting Anthony.  A couple gladly not wasted on anyone else, they truly deserved each other.  They live in the present, dreaming of  the inheritance they will get one day, but are consumed by the past.  And we find that at the end, where they were once young and vibrant, that in their early thirties they finally receive the inheritance, but their lifestyle has left them bedridden and sick, we find them being attended to as two old people would be, sailing on a ship bundled up alone and miserable.  Getting what they wanted, just not wanting what they got.  They set out to reap the rich and glorious, only to find rich and glorious don’t necessarily go hand in hand.  They inherited what they thought as the world, but ended up costing them their souls.

An all too familiar premise today too.  When first starting out in life, we are going to change the world, make money, become successful, and live happily ever after.  Then we find the world changes us, we downgrade the definition of success to reality, and live miserably.  We have taken on the things of the world, and they have won.  Some get it early and change their priorities, some live waiting for the next deal to be the one that sets them on the road to success.  When young, I was invited to an Amway meeting, meeting the ones who had made it, only to find their real theme was to “fake it until you make it.”  Live beyond your means, and when your ship comes in, then you can pay back the loans that had you live rich when you weren’t.  And many did and do, the outward appearance of success to their peers keeping their egos fed, until one day the notes come due, the money isn’t there, and the ones they tried to impress aren’t worth impressing.  And you end up miserable like Anthony and Gloria did.  Their ship has come in, only it takes oars to row it, and they don’t have the energy to do it.  So they sit tied to the dock, watching the tide roll in....

This has sadly happened to churches along the way.  Where each new church set out to do things differently, and get closer to God than the one they just left, not making the same mistakes as the one they just left.  But without God in it, it will fail, and we see too much of that today.  There was a time when I thought the world had invaded the church, but I was to find out that the church invited the world in.  Then locked the doors behind it, and wouldn’t let it out.  Basing success on full pews, overflowing offerings, and social programs.  We are big, so we must be successful, never knowing how miserable they really are.  Teachings that are trendy rather than spirit inspired, or even scriptural.  Don’t rock the boat, or the giving will stop, and as long as they are rich, they brag about their success.  Yet they are poor, broken, and miserable on the inside.  They have inherited the things of the world, found they are miserable, only their pride will keep them from repenting, and trading their valuables for values.  And it didn’t need to be that way. 

I have attended churches that where the pastor gives an order, based on what he believes is the truth.  “Go out and bring in the lost,” he declares, “and I will get them saved.”  And the congregation tries, they invite many to church, but none come.  As the weeks go by, the new building they built to house the multitude that never comes, sits empty.  The buses bought to bring them in sit empty, and then he blames the congregation, “you didn’t do your part, so I can’t do mine.”  It is their fault, never his, and soon the congregation dwindles to nothing.  They were hungry for God, and still are, and go where they can be fed.  Where Jesus is the main thing, and the truth is taught.  And someday another church, one of God will buy the buildings for pennies on the dollar, reaping the benefits of following God, rather than seeking worldly success through numbers.  A property that was once beautiful, but became damned, but resurrected by God.  Like many of the lives that will fill it.  For when God builds the church, we don’t labor in vain.  And sadly those who sought fame and fortune in the church will find out that they gave up their souls, only to be owned by what they desired.  Meanwhile the meek shall inherit the earth.  And as I look around at the earth today, there isn’t much I want to inherit.  What good is a rich relation if they have to die so you can inherit?

We have Jesus, who did die so we can inherit, but he is alive, and the earth we will inherit is not what we see today.  Roads paved in gold, not filled with potholes on many freeways today.  No fences, no police, no crime, as all sin is gone.  No government trying to deceive, along with lying politicians, for we will have an almighty king, a benevolent despot whose love for us cannot be matched.  No sickness, no bad days, as in his presence we will have it all.  Everything promised in the Bible and more-call it Amazing Grace, for there are no words to describe it.  But yet hell is described, a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.  Just like on the same earth the lost struggled so hard to conquer.  They may have gained the world, but it cost them their soul, instead of being souled out to Jesus.  The ironic tragedy being that God will give you the desires of your heart, and when it is him, you get all of him.  But when you choose the world, you get the world, and lose everything.  Just like Anthony and Gloria did.  Old before their time, too ill to enjoy what they had desired, losers in life.  And like everyone else, when they die, they will leave everything.  So rich, yet so poor. 

So choose Jesus today, and enjoy life.  Set your sight on things on high, heaven, and desire the better things of God.  If your dreams are met here on earth, you will find you are short changed, as the real riches are found in heaven.  So rich that it doesn’t matter.  When you choose Jesus you end up getting the whole world, the perfect one you set out in search of, or tried to find.  You will live forever in the comfort of Jesus, and we don’t have to wait.  Today is practice for the future, our job to be ambassadors of Christ, telling others how Jesus saved, so they can escape the trap of death when they die.  And begin life anew today in his spirit.  “On earth as it is in heaven,” not the other way around.  Many will try the world’s way and fail.  But those who choose Jesus will find life, and an abundance of it.  God’s promise, and he never fails to deliver.  We will all struggle in life, why come up short at the end, when victory is there for you.  Choose the wisdom of God and his ways, and you inherit the earth.  A new earth prepared just for us, by our creator.  And who knows us better than the one who created us. 

Seems there was this couple named Ananias and Sapphira who once sold some land, and held back form God.  So he held back from them.  Like Anthony and Gloria they wanted all, and ended up owing all.  Think about it.  “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”  What’s in your wallet?  Better yet, who is in your heart?

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

lasting impressions

We were on a cycle tour to Canada, going through San Francisco on the way.  A beautiful summer day, we decided to ride through the town, rather than around it, and see the new Giants ballpark.  A beautiful area now from what had once been a run down dock area, a man approached us scalping tickets.  Not really interested, I shot him back a price, and he accepted-so I had to take them, and they turned out to be behind home plate in the 13th row-you could hear the umpire talking to the catcher.  And so we got to see Barry Bonds that day, hoping he would hit one into the bay, and the fans in the kayak could chase it.  He never did, but did leave a lasting impression on me.  He actually dogged two separate hits to him, being so lazy he turned them both into doubles. We could see perfectly where he was playing left field, and our old coach Mr. Lawrence would have never allowed us to do that.  But yet here was Mr. Home Run King acting like he was only shagging fly balls.  Not the impression I had of him, but one I was left with, and to this day, I still think of him as a lazy bum.  Based on the one time, the  only time I ever saw  him play.  His witness anything but an All Star performance.

We are told that first impressions are the most important, but I have found that like Dave Thomas’ philosophy of the best tow bites of a burger, the first and the last, the last seems to stick with us more.  The first bite to say “oh how good,” and the last to make us say “I want another.”  Sorry Barry, you had it your way, you ain’t no king to me, and I lost all respect for you that day.  By the way, the Giants won.  But just like the thousands watching the game that day, many watch us everyday, and if we have told them we are a Christian, they expect certain things from us.  And you may only get one chance to many to be that Bible they are looking to read, or to condemn.  So our actions and attitudes, along with our words and reactions tell more about us and Jesus than the best sermons.  Or our best recitation of the word.  So we need to walk softly with Jesus, and when it comes from inside, and when we are in the spirit, then we see lives changed.  Sadly we see lives changed from when our flesh acts up too.  A good example is you are saved, and still drink.  Proclaiming it is OK, falling back on bits and pieces of broken scripture to justify your sin.  But a man is watching who isn’t saved, and thinks “he drinks, he sleeps around, he watches porno, and he cheats on his taxes.  So do I, so what is different between the two of us?”  And although we don’t lose our salvation through our continued sin, he never gains his because of it.  So ask yourself, is that how you want to represent the one who saved you?  The creator of the universe?  Is that the gospel you which to portray?

I know this will start arguments, and being caught in sin always will seek justification for the sinner, but consider the character of God, and consider him.  We find in Galations 5 the “fruit of the spirit,” love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, meekness, long suffering, and self control.  All things that describe the character of Jesus.  Character being who you are, reputation being what people see, character shows in the situation when we least expect it.  Self control manifests itself in our decisions, our choices, and shows where we are with Jesus.  Meekness says no when we can say yes, considering others first.  Just like Jesus considered us first, for while we were yet sinners, he died for us.  But goodness and kindness, who cannot use a little more of both?  He had compassion on the woman caught in adultery, where are your accusers?  Also where was the man, I understand it takes two.  We will never know what he wrote in the sand, but he did it kindly, maybe a reputation of each man there, but never exposing their deepest rejection of him, he was kind.  Not bringing new sin to light, but writing what everyone knew already, and they all left.  He was kind and gentle the man who was blind, showing goodness to those he healed.  His character always on display for all to see, he never got angry and sinned, a miracle often over looked.  Even his calling of the woman caught was with a sign of respect, the same way he responded to his mother when she complained about the wedding having no wine.  He didn’t talk down to anyone, showed respect, love, and compassion, but yet stood firm in who he was.  How do we stand, where is our character?

If your idea of growing in Christ is wearing out the seat of your pants before the soles of your shoes, get out like Jesus told us and make disciples.  Take the gospel out to all  you meet, and don’t step over any Lazaruses along the way.  The ultimate kindness, he showed respect to him, where the rich man ignored him, probably cursing him having to step over him everyday.  The rich man stepping over a man who represented Jesus, and we find two different lasting impressions.

What is your lasting impression of Jesus?  We can see him on the cross before we can remember his words.  Actions are like that, and the world was watching that day, and everyday since.  Yet he chooses us to be his ambassadors?  His depth of love and understanding must go far beyond those of mortal men, but I know I don’t wish anyone to go to hell.  Consider that the next time you think it is OK, or that no one is watching.  Maybe Barry forgot that that afternoon.  Just another game to him, there would be others, but only one chance for me to see him live.  Today you may be the only, or possibly the last time anyone sees the gospel.  Make a lasting impression on them, being kind and good, Show them love by putting them first, no retribution, and respond as Jesus would have.  Many ask “what would Jesus do?”  If you know him, you shouldn’t have to ask.

What was your first impression Jesus?  Your last one will leave a lasting impression long after you are gone. Love him in the morning when you see the sun a rising, love him in the evening cause he took you through the day.   And in the in between times when you feel the pressure rising, remember that he loves you.  And promises to stay with you. 

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

to be or knot to be

It is not a lie to say I was a Boy Scout.  But I was barely a Boy Scout, as I somehow made it to Tenderfoot.  I say somehow, as I could do many of the things required, but never took the time to be tested.  I was too busy out having fun.  Think about it, a group of teenage boys, with limited parental supervision, given knives and axes, and and left in the woods for a weekend.  Eating junk food, playing with fire, and listening to stories around that campfire at night, all being supervised by men in shorts acting like the teens they were there to supervise.  And not a cell phone, i-pod, or laptop in sight.  It was a parent free weekend, filled with so much fun that who had time to do anything like earning merit badges.  Plus although you got to wear that cool sash with all the badges, they expected you to act responsibly too, which meant less fun, more badges and dealing with kids like me.  So maybe I was to become the oldest Tenderfoot, while many younger were earning their badges on the way to Life Scout, with few attaining Eagle.  Those guys really got respect....But one Jamboree I was called into action because of my age, finding rank doesn’t always have its privledges.

I was more of a Jack of All Trades, really a screw up of all things, with an attention span of 2 minutes.  So when it came time to be part of a booth showing off your talents, I was like the last kid chosen in kickball, no one wanted me.  So the Scoutmaster assigned me to help some younger scouts, by age but not by rank.  These guys were knot tying fools, they could tie anything into knots, and could do various knots.  Me, I wore loafers.  But although their fingers were knot crazy, they were scared in front of a crowd, and some would even cry if called upon to speak.  So I was the mouthpiece, describing all the knots, and making it all sound interesting.  And they did a great job, I must have been OK< because we won the Best Booth, and a special badge to wear on our sashes, for those fortunate enough to have earned one.  But being the spokesman, and the oldest, and the biggest, I got the award, and the recognition-all without even having to tie my shoes.  We had won as a team, but one kid, who was a knot tying phenom, got upset with me, and wanted to rat me out.  He had taught all the other kids knots, I just was the front man.  And I wore him like a shadow the rest of the Jamboree, we were now recognized for what the knot tyers had done, and he was buy telling everybody he had done everything, that I was hogging the glory.  Of which I didn’t want, I wanted to be out setting fires with jiffy juice like my other denmates, not being held responsible.  There was no fun in that, and with this kid telling everyone what a yuk I was, it made it worse.  The kid had me tied in knots, and somewhere in it all was a life lesson, all that responsibility just had to have a lesson tied to it.

Now Mr. Deyerle knew who did all the work, it was no secret.  But he was trying to teach us teamwork, and the team got the credit, not the individual.  It took me to entertain as the others tied knots, or it would have put the audience to sleep.  It took both our talents, and he knew it, and while I wanted to be out of the lime light, this other kid wanted to be in it.  So when we were asked for an encore that night, Mr. Deyerle let the kid MC the event.  And the kid panicked, and couldn’t tie anything, he was tongue tied.  So Mr. D nodded at me, I stepped in, and helped out.  A lesson learned that day on teamwork, and who gets the credit.  The rain falls on the just and the unjust, some tie knots and get tongue tied, some can’t and don’t.  To be or knot to be, go figure.

A lesson I still remember, and was reinforced years ago when working for Roger Penske.  He defined teamwork as “if it needs to be done, do it.”  The team wins, and the driver cannot do it without the pit crew, the mechanics, the crew chief, and the sponsor’s backing.  It takes a team...we may be in competition, but not with each other.   We are compliment rather than compete with each other, something Paul wrote about in Corinthians 2000 years ago.  Many were following different teachers, Paul and Apollos among them.  Some taught, some evangelized, but it was God who provided the growth.  Without him, it didn’t matter, with him it made all the difference.  We find many different talents in the church today, and God has made no two of us alike.  Some are really thankful for that.  But we need the talents of each other, in God’s power and direction to succeed.  Only God opens the heart, gives the increase, and satisfies the soul.  Only Jesus is the way, and not dressing alike, singing the same songs, reading only the same scriptures, or trying to earn the same heavenly badge will work.  It is not what we can do, it is what Jesus did and still does that changes everything and changes us.  Only God can give the increase, so get over it.  So we should focus on him rather than on the efforts and methods we have, even those were given to us by him.  So we find strength in Christ, who tells us we can do all things in him.  When we cooperate with the spirit rather than compete, we all win, and Jesus is glorified, he gets the credit.  But yet too many times we seek the gifts rather than the gift giver, and end up not being part of his glory.  And the strongest of churches you find made up of diverse people, serving God, the ultimate title given to us on earth.  There is only one savior-Jesus, and he came to serve, making himself a little lower than the angels for awhile.  Imagine what we can do if we serve rather than seek attention of our talents?  And no amount of badges will gain your merit with God, you cannot make him love you more than he does, but you can change to love him more than you do, by loving his people more.  By just doing what he shows you to do, and nothing more.

I still cannot tie knots well today, it is like it takes a third hand for me.  So I turn to Jesus to be that hand.  To tie and untie that which I cannot, and to give him all the credit.  Our booth may have been about tying knots, but Mr. D saw a more important lesson to be learned.  Jesus is like that, he sees a more important lesson to be learned, and when he gets the credit, we get the badges.  We get to know him better, to seek him first, and to cooperate in the spirit rather than compete against it.  And all the time God provides the growth. 

Jesus Christ, who was, who is, and who is to come.  Some tie, some explain, but Jesus still provides the growth.  Knot you, or me.  Paul may have watered after Apollos planted, just like God planned, and he still provides that growth today.  It is he who makes us the new work, who makes us each unique, and only he who can save us.  The same but different.  Go plant or water today.  Ask knot what your God can do for you, ask what you can do for your God. 

Forever a Tenderfoot, love with compassion,

Mike

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