where are you?

Even despite the best, most carefully given directions, in spite of your GPS telling you “turn right in .6 miles,” and your spouse noting “that building looks familiar, haven’t we just been by it,” and turning down the radio to better navigate, why do we do that escapes me, we get lost.  We don’t know where we are in regards to where we want to be, so we start to panic.  We look at signs in the country, but all road numbered roads look the same. “Was that Road 220 or 228?”  When confused all things seem to take on a similar, yet unfamiliar look, and rather than stop and seek directions, we keep going.  Now on most of my rides that can prove to be a good thing, as long as I have gas, we aren’t lost.  But many times when an appointment has been arranged, or someone is depending on you, panic begins to set in.  And even though we can be very close, we feel very far away.  Finally in desperation we call the one who we are to meet, who answers with “where are you?”  And you think, “if I knew, I wouldn’t ask.”  But more often you just exclaim “I’m lost!”  Never our fault.  And whether in the mountains, in the fields, or downtown USA, all things look the same. And reference points seemed blurred, you need to go back and find a place of reference so you can be told how to go.  You need to find a starting point, and “I don’t know” isn’t the right answer.  Honest, just wrong.

But what if you have followed the directions explicitly, and not where you need to be?  One morning I was to meet Theresa in Orange County at a picnic, riding ahead for business.  Simple directions, and she is very good at navigation.  “Up the 405, get off at Beach and go right.  The park was only 2 miles, you can’t miss it.”  And when she didn’t show up, I became concerned, I never thought she had gotten lost, where was she?  And when she called, I asked “where are you?”  “At the beach?”  How did she get there?  Following my directions...she got off at Beach and turned right....but where I had come in from the other way, I didn’t know you went under the overpass, and then turned right following the road, going to the beach.  I thought it was a simple off ramp, and go right...I directed, she listened and obeyed, and ended up at the beach.  Six miles the other way! 

But many times the signs don’t help either.  Roads split, and exits disappear if you take the wrong fork.  Again if out for a ride I have found many cool roads I didn’t know about, but when I try to tell others I cannot tell them how to get there.  I knew where I was, just not sure where I was.  Lastly getting lost in big cities is easy for me, I am used to the intelligent grid Albuquerque is laid out on.  Give me an intersection, and a few minutes, I’ll be there.  But one city that was laid out by wandering cows, maybe drunk, has Main Street, Main Avenue, Main Place, Main Circle, Main Drive, and Main Road.  All in different areas, and not to be confused by the state of Maine everything.  Suddenly 1220 Main takes on a new, scary destination.  And what happens when a canyon gets between you, and the road on the other side.  One way streets not going the way you want only make it worse.  No one wants to be lost, to admit to being lost, or to stop and ask directions....

The first question asked in the Bible is from God, to Adam and Eve?  “Where are you?”  They didn’t show up for their daily afternoon walk, and God knew something was up.  He knew where they were, hiding, but wanted to hear from them.  For them to admit they were lost.  To seek him and find the way back.  But sin stood in the way, they were seeking a way back, and God was the way.  We are told that he physically walked with them, and when God appears in physical form, it is in the form of Jesus.  And here we have the first evidence of Jesus reaching out to sinners, to two lost souls, seeking to reunite with them.  Note he is seeking them, while they hide from him.  It is called a theophany, the physical manifestation of God, and from the beginning in the Garden, he is looking for those who are lost.  Today if God were to ask you “where are you?” could you tell him?  Would you tell him?  What would you say?

When a man asked for prayer last night, I had just met, I asked “where are you with Jesus?”  It makes all the difference in the answer.  Saved, you may just need direction, simple forgiveness, and to be shown the way back.  But if not saved, if truly a lost sinner, you need to be saved.  And giving spiritual advice to one not in the spirit will only confuse more.  Many well meaning Christians have given advice without asking “where are you with Jesus?” leaving the lost person worse off than when he began.  If God asks “where are you?” it certainly is OK for us to ask.  For without a starting point, a point of reference, you may be given good advice, just not right advice.  And spend a day at the beach, missing the picnic. 

Jesus answered many questions with questions, making us think.  Allowing us to understand, giving us that focal point to concentrate on and start from.  We need to know where the questioner is before we can give adequate directions.  To minister effectively. To show love and forgiveness.  We need Jesus to guide, but we need to know where we are so we can get on the right path.  All roads, like all advice lead somewhere, but not always where we want to go.  And the tank may be low, with only Jesus knowing the way.  

Where are you with Jesus?  Maybe you don’t know, at least an honest answer.  Seek him today, answer him honestly, then follow his directions.  Stiff necked Jews wandered 40 years in the desert, never going far from home, they never asked direction.  Are you saved and lost your way?  Are you wandering and wondering about Jesus?  Take time to consider where you are.  Then let God guide you to where you need to be.  You may be looking for a place on Main, but without keeping Jesus the main thing, you’ll never find that right address.  Many things look the same when lost, or confused.  Nobody likes to admit they are lost.  But it is the first step to salvation.  Maybe the most important question you will ever be asked.  So, where are you with Jesus?

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

what motorcyclists talk about

Most of your life is spent on a journey from point A to point B.  Without ever stopping to realize it.  We wake up, we go to bed.  We go to school, we graduate.  We get a job, we go to job.  We come home, we go to bed.  We repeat this 250 times a year, with two weeks off for vacation, and some call it life.  They fail to see that we spend most of our time along the way, that we are in a perpetual as you go situation.  They travel the same roads, yet fail to see where they are going, or where they have been.  Even sadder is they miss the things along the way, the life that is happening right before our very eyes.  Places that many times only exist in our dreams, yet we have the chance to travel them every day.  Safe and secure in mediocrity, they raise families to live the same lives, passing generational losses on to their children.  Feigning success, happiness, and finding comfort in arriving.  They made it, but outside of arriving have nothing to show for the ride.  Those of us who ride know better.  Life is more personal, as we use all the senses God created in us to enjoy the day, and the ride.  Last weeks four day, 1000 mile ride reminded me of the freedom in riding, freedom of the road, the destination secondary when you are setting out on a road, and having the perfect riding partner along to share it with is where it is at.  Only on a motorcycle do you look at the skies before setting out.  Dress in layers, one morning started out in the 40’s, jacket off by lunch, and in the 80’s by dinner.  In a car, you turn on the heater/AC, the radio, and just go.  Latte in one hand, our lives in your other as you attempt to steer around us.  We check our tires, how many miles till empty via the trip mileage, where breakfast will be, usually an hour down the road, and what roads we will ride.  Maps old and creased from folding are old friends, and you plan your day around the ride, the road, arriving wherever when you get there.  Side roads call, we rode three roads I have passed by for years wondering where they went, rode too fast at 20mph, too slow at 80.  One off camber, up hill, 180 degree turn in first the most challenging.  We savor the points between A and B where most others rush by, the places we see they don’t.  The memories we have they won’t, and a good night’s sleep from being tired, not stressed.  And wake up each morning ready to ride again.

We check and lube our chains.  Check our tires for wear, and to see how much of the sides we have used.  Bikers know how many miles we can go until we hit reserve, which gas gives better performance, why Dunlops steer quicker, but wear faster than Michelins, and why to sit at the counter at a diner where all the action is.  When we stop and visit we compare road notes, places to eat, places to avoid, and inquire of “which way are you going?” which also tells us where you came from.  We have a common bond, we ride, and the road becomes a third party, it is real, has personality, ups and downs, detours, and fast sweepers.  It is the life we spend most of our waking hours on, so we enjoy it and look forward to it.  It is our destination, not just a way to get somewhere.  Those who drive just don’t get it, the artificial environment with controlled temp and music is boring to us.  Allowing a GPS to guide our day is sinful, being stuck in traffic stupid, and driving side by side in no way compares to riding with one in back of the other.  We call them cages, they get in, lock the door, put the latte down, turn on the satellite radio, and prepare to be bored.  Thinking you are entertained.  Stuck behind the wheel, never knowing the freedom of behind the handlebars.

Too many Christians I know confuse God and the church.  Thinking they are the one and the same, they go to church, tithe at church, get prayed for at church, and even endure church for an hour once a week.  They are stuck in a cage, just like being in a car, repeating 52 times a year, and never going anywhere with God.  Climate controlled religion.  Living life to the least, thinking they are living it to the fullest.  In Christ, just not with Jesus.  They ask for the spirit to come, never knowing he is always present, they have turned away.  Same music, same seat, same pastor, and same messages, nothing new, until Jesus becomes real in their lives.  Religion will do that, a man once told me “he always feels safe on the road when going to church, all the masses are the same.”  Never challenged by what God can do in a life, that is for others.  Yet they miss the fact that Jesus spent most of his time on the road.  Everyday the road was his destination, and the people he met along the way.  It even happened to the apostles, Philip meeting the Ethiopian eunuch, and Paul meeting Jesus.  Where?  On the road.  Where the action is, where the people are.  Where we ride.  Our destination for the day’s trip.  Which is why some have testimonies to share, while some are the audience.  Some follow Jesus, some just follow.  Some lead, some must be led.  Only Jesus and bikers know the true freedom of the road.  Maybe that is why Christian bikers are a special breed, we understand freedom.  We ride.  We know Jesus. 

And so recall the great commission Jesus gives us.  To go and make disciples.  Not in church, but along the road.  It is given in a perfect tense, meaning “as you go,” share Jesus.  Hard to do in a locked car, easier one to one.  Face to face, or helmet to helmet.  As we ride, we live, we share, we build testimonies.  Life is a ride, and the ride is life.  Don’t be like some who quit riding because they got old, only to find they got old because they quit riding. Don’t confuse your life in Christ with going to church.  Quit praying for the spirit, and start living in him.  Jesus left us his spirit to guide, comfort, and ride with until he returns.  He is here, you are here, the road is here.  Still don’t get it?  Where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.  We look down the road, anticipating the next curve, not looking behind to see who is gaining.  We ride the ride Jesus gives us to the max.  He is the Alpha and the Omega, beginning and end, but also the right now.  Which is where we spend all our time.  Today was tomorrow yesterday.  Tomorrow will be yesterday soon enough.  Enjoy the day, the ride, and Jesus.  Get all the blessings from life he offers.  Cars and religion, now you know why we ride motorcycles.  And why we love Jesus.  I’d try to explain, but you probably couldn’t hear me inside my Arai. 

And now you know why dogs ride with their heads out the window.  Freedom...and why a 200 mile for orange juice ice cream makes perfect sense.  And what motorcyclists talk about...freedom.  In between rides, of course.

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

remember the lesson from the AV squad

Much of the technology today was only a dream to me while growing up.  But in school we had this group of boys not quite men who attended to all of our technology needs in school.  They were the ones who set up the film strip machines, could repair and rethread the movie projector in the dark, over dub recordings, and run the light and sound at assemblies.  They were the Audio Visual guys, the AV squad, usually comprised of those who used slide rules and wore pocket protectors, who would build radios and color TV’s from kits, and were always picked last, if picked at all in gym class.  But somehow today ended up ruling the high tech world.  In my school they were the ones who were anti-war, were hippies, and listened to Hendrix and Led Zeppelin before the trendy ones did.  In fact the first time I heard the Led Zep album was when sent on an errand in ninth grade to fetch one of them to repair our film strip projector who was self destructing in mid flight, and they turned me on to them, listening through head phones, interrupted by the next person sent to find me and bring them back.  But their mark in my life had been made, and later when installing an 8-track in my car, they provided all they help, simple to them, a nightmare for me.  A far cry from today when you match blue wires with blue plugs and red with red.  These guys were pre-apps, nerdy at best, and today are the software companies.  They might not understand a new Corvette, but can program its ECU remotely to give you more power.  A long way from their VW buses with peace signs and clogging the fast lane at 25 mph.  It is these men and women who when they were young boys and girls brought technology to our classrooms.  So today here is to all those wearing pocket protectors, using slide rules, and keeping our high tech world functioning, here is to AV geeks everywhere.

When I worked for Mercedes Benz, radios had gone on to become stereos to become sound systems.  One older lady confused by the 37 buttons on her S Class, allowed me to advise her to “find a teenager to explain it,” and her grandson did.  Today we have apps for everything, carefully avoiding human contact, but we still have grandkids.  Let them earn their inheritance.  But it wasn’t always so, and my Grandpa’s era of technology was wax recordings on tubes only the rich could afford, and silent movies for 5 cents.  He was a father long before talkies came into his life, the technology was there via Tom Edison, who invented both recordings of audio and visual.  He may be the original AV guy.  But for years they were incompatible, they ran at different speeds, and the effect was most like the Ninja movies from the seventies, where the English words stopped, but the Japanese lips kept moving.  It took Edison advancing the concept of the earlier Kinetoscope where audio was synchronized with video, to make it all possible, something we take for granted today.  Some 30 years after inventing both movies and sound, he brought them together in 1928, in “The Jazz Singer.”  Which was actually a threat to those who made silent films, fearing the audience would become consumed with the audio, and forget about the video aspect.  Something that we still need to deal with in real life terms, just not on the silver screen.

“Walk your talk,” we are told from pulpits.  Let your actions match your words.  Be doers just not sayers of the word.  Yet in too many cases, from Pastor to just saved we don’t walk our talk.  The video of our lives doesn’t match our audio.  We are out of synch with God, allowing emotions, situations, and influence other than the Holy Spirit to guide us.  “Do as I say, not as I do,” we hear, stepping over the Lazaruses in our life who God places there.  We dodge opportunities to bless and be blessed, turning off the video for fear it will not match our audio.  We turn off the Holy Spirit, denying him and going our own way into sin, with disregard for the consequences.  We need to get in synch with Jesus, yet many have studied to find themselves approved, only to fall short when it comes time to act.  Yet others operate in the background like the AV squad, only being called when problems occur, and help is needed now.  Many times the problem could have been avoided if they followed God, thankfully he sent Jesus so we can be forgiven.  He gives us mercy, which can only be had after we screw up.  Funny how that works.

So we need to work on our AV skills, daily as the Bible tells us, working out our salvation.  Not to regain it, you cannot lose the gift, but to fine tune it.  To let Jesus be the most important part of our lives, seeking him first, then letting him add on all other things.  But it takes self control, the last in the list of the Fruit of the Spirit, to synchronize our AV skills.  And it is manifested itself in our actions and our words, by our choices.  We can become bitter, vindictive, hateful, or scornful.  Many do, but when we choose Jesus over the world, and are led by the Spirit, we change.  Suddenly the words of our mouth and the meditations of our heart are reflected in our actions.  We can go out and preach the word daily, using words when necessary.  We can be identified by our actions, our words later backing them up, rather than seeking forgiveness when we do unto others before they can do unto us.  It is a choice, just like following Jesus, one we make hundreds of times a day.  We can choose to be led by the Spirit, or seek forgiveness from him later.  Obedience is better than sacrifice, I have the scars to prove it.  Also when God enters a life we find evidence of him being there, his love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, meekness, and self control becoming part of our lives.  Walking with, rather than chasing after God and his ways.

Miracles abound everywhere, yet we miss them.  We aren’t looking, or listening.  No synchronization in the spirit.  Yet God provides live demonstrations every day.  Every doctor who reads my chart tells me there is no reason I should be alive after my aorta exploded.  I am a miracle, and you may doubt my words, but my scar gives it veracity.  The visual proof God is there, and his work revealed.   We need to match our visual to our audio, it works both ways.  So be careful of what you speak, for long after your words are forgotten, the images remain.  We see Jesus on the cross, forgetting his last words.  We are that memory of his that he has sent to remind others, don’t let them or him down.  Or yourself.  We need Jesus in everything, everyday.  But when our audio doesn’t match our visual, usually pointed out by the world, he forgives.  We get another chance.  The film of our lives can match the audio, there is no app for it.  It is a person, and can do things no I-anything can duplicate.  He is the person of Jesus Christ.  The answer.  He is just waiting for you to respond to his invite today.  To allow your words to match your actions, just like his did.  To be forgiven, and to give meaning to your life.  It takes listening to the spirit calling, and then acting.  It takes self control, your choice.  It takes Jesus.  Will you take him into your life?  Maybe the AV squad wasn’t that geeky after all.  Sound and action meeting and walking in one accord.  Long before AV we had Jesus.  The real AV guy, making it all possible.  Who ya gonna call?

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

met out on the highway...

My first ticket was for failure to stay right.  Only in New Jersey at 2am in the morning would a State Policeman pull over 3 high school kids in a Pinto and write a ticket.  On a deserted highway.  Ever been cut off by Ms. SUV cutting across 3 lanes then texting at 50 mph in the fast lane?  While under the influence of cell phone?  And if you honk, she thinks you are a rager!  Yet our freeways are among the safest places in the world to drive-go figure.  Parking lots are the worst, particularly our COSTCO, where mini-vans seek to hit you, Navy retirees clog lanes, rather than walk two additional spaces, and loose carts always seem pointed at my truck.  Just another 20 feet and you could store them where the receptacle is, maybe they are in a hurry to get out in the left lane and go slow.  And as anyone who ever learned to ride a motorcycle knows, the most dangerous place to learn to ride is a parking lot.  The scene of too many disasters, even when empty.

But once you make it to the freeways, speed may be irrelevant, as AAA published years ago the average speed in LA freeways was 17 mph.  You make better time in COSTCO’s parking lot.  Years ago when only visiting our state, I had ridden up to Anaheim checking out new bikes.  Coming home on the 405 south, traffic moved at 70mph in this still 55mph wonderland, except for the center lane.  It was backed up for miles, so much I started counting the cars I passed.  After 30 I concentrated more on what was ahead, as the Orange Crush, where the 5 and 405 meet was just ahead.  Looking over I saw the end of the traffic backup, and looked over to see who was the perpetrator, it was my Father in law.  Going all of 50, he waved, and I wondered, as happy and slow as he was, why were all the others following behind in his lane, when three others were available?

On a trip through Tennessee many years later the answer was not to be found.  Heading east on I-40, a sign warned “lane ends in 30 miles” and cars and semi trucks were already merging causing a traffic jam.  So I kept on in the right lane, all but empty for 30 miles, while people honked and yelled while I passed.  I still don’t get that one, and I have been involved in it two times now...must be a state thing or something.  It seems each group of drivers has its own set of rules, some you find out on the road, some stuck on the road, and some on the side of the road.  Or in a parking lot.  At least they are consistent.

Over the years I tend to ride consistently, to maintain a steady speed.  I can fill up, water a lemon tree, and eat a Baby Ruth in about 15 minutes, be fully refreshed and ready to ride again.  Yet some take 3 or 4 times as long.  Think of it like this, at 80 miles ridden in one hour, you average 80 mph.  Simple public school math.  But stop and rest for 30 minutes, you have only travelled 80 miles in 90 minutes, dropping your average speed down to 54mph.  No wonder some get home late, or miss CHiP’s on TV.  Who wants to spend a good part of their life in a gas station?  Same with guys in the gym 10 hours a week, times 52 weeks=520 hours, or 13 weeks a year sweating.  Not for me. I rather have a 13 week road trip.  Where we spend our time on earth can be very telling, and disturbing if we sit and analyze it.

Frank and I decided years ago that if we have to sit somewhere, we choose to sit behind bars, handlebars.  Clear road ahead, places to go and see, and people to meet.  Yes I probably watch too much TV, spend too much time dodging SUV’s and retirees at COSTCO, but give me the open road any time.  Every time.  Right now seems a good time. Yet finding the time seems difficult, and when we do, we tend to hurry to get there, and wait in line.  Think of Disneyland as a theme park of waiting in line for 45 minutes, with a 5 minute ride reward.  At the end of a ten hour visit, you spent 50 minutes riding, and over 9 hours in line.  Suddenly 17 mph in LA seems quick.  Just not as quick as a parking lot.  And all for less than $100.  Give me the money, the time, the road, and I am out of town.  Empty roads, polite people, grass and trees, and less stress.  Two wheels preferred, a cage if you absolutely must.  The road the destination, when you get there your decision. 

An acute observation shows that Jesus never rushed.  And was never late.  Remember Lazarus and Jesus taking his time, at least to his sisters?  It was to show resurrection power.  Why did he wait and heal the blind man from birth after many years?  To show his healing power, and that no one else could get the credit.  Some wise sage long ago claimed “he isn’t always there when I want him, but always there when I need him.”  Half right, he is always there, he never leaves.  And so we have him riding into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, tried the next Thursday, crucified Friday, and risen on Sunday.  All in God’s timing.  Just as the scriptures predicted.  When he said “it is finished,” it was, not a minute sooner.  Or later.  His timing is perfect, we get a little too slow, or too fast.  Somehow when we honor him, we get where we need to be, when he wants us there.  Even if you are stuck behind somebody’s relative in the middle lane.  Or hurry to change lanes before it ends in 30 miles.  Jesus knows...if only we did.

He knows where the time goes, some sweating, some texting, some riding.  God knows, and we can too, it is called prayer.  Too many wait and look for an escape route, when if we asked and obeyed we might not get stuck.  But no matter what, Jesus is with us.  If only he could ride in the commuter lane with you.  “You see officer, Jesus is always with me,and although the car looks empty, he is here.”  After the breath test, call your attorney. But know he is with you, the holy spirit sent to guide you.  Comfort you.  And show you the mysteries of the cross.  It is all about Jesus. 

More than the old country western song “I don’t care if it rains or freezes, just as long as I got my plastic Jesus, right on the dashboard of my car...”  He is real.  Today is Good Friday, celebrate what he did on the cross.  Pick up your cross and follow him.  Bungee it on the back of your bike if you must, but follow.  Celebrate Easter, and his resurrection, as we will someday be resurrected.  And don’t worry if you are dead in sin, only something that has been dead can be resurrected, and only Jesus can give life.  Seek him and live today.  As far as time goes, we are not promised tomorrow, and today is the day of salvation for many. 

We ride to finish.  We race to finish.  We live to finish, but to finish first, first we must finish.  Life is an endurance race, not a 1/4 mile drag.  Where you spend it is up to you.  Also who you spend it with.  Jesus spent much of his life on the road, the highway.  Where the people are, where the action is.  At 17 or at 80, he keeps up.  Can you?  Will you?  Keep in mind our final destination, it somehow makes the ride all worth while.

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

ride and prejudice

Mr. Levy was a Vice president of Polychrome, and the head man at our new location.  His secretary was Sara, young and attractive, as most of us once were, at least young that is.  Her office was next to his, and it seems her door was always open, and she was strategically placed to see what went on.  All comings and goings went by her office, even trips to the men’s room, and it was rumored she kept notes on all of us.  I had a rule, never date anyone you work with, and although attractive, I had little interest in her.  She came from an old Italian, very Catholic family, and dressed like it.  Quite a difference from the rest of us in our wide lapels, open shirt look just before the disco era.  She was always pleasant, and asked a lot of questions.  Which somehow you felt compelled to answer....We got to be friends, at work, and when I bought my custom van, the 1973 Chevy that Garry Brown had customized for his final project before graduating from Bucknell, she took interest in it.  I was living with my parents at the time due to budget constraints, no money, and she lived with her multi-generational family at home, like I said a very old family.  She had let the word get around she would like a ride in it, and somehow we agreed to go out to dinner, the van as the transportation.  Good girls didn’t ride on motorcycles...but did they in vans?

Picking her up I met a different Sara than the one I knew at work.  Her family was nice, invited me in for a beer, I graciously declined, and as formal as she was at work, she was now attractive and vivacious.  She had gone from professional to attractive.  Did she have a sister I didn’t know about?  So off we went, her asking many questions, mostly about the van, and most of my talking was answers, not questions, or even statements.  Mostly replies.  Dinner at Charlie Brown’s went well, we were actually having a good time, the sun still up on this summer night, and I asked her what she wanted to do.  Too early to go home, both living with our parents, but I did have the van, and she really liked it...so we went cruising in it, which is what she wanted to do.  To be seen in the van, while others jealously looked at her with envy.  Driving Miss Sara if you would.  So off through North Plainfield we went, taking the long way to her house.  No traffic, just cruising when the red lights appeared.  And I was pulled over...for going too slow.  I had a list of ready excuses for going too fast, but none for excessive slowness.  After being told how I was impeding traffic, no cars passed while being detained, and how speed kills....death due to insufficient speed, I can see the headlines now, and left me off with a verbal warning for going 25 in a 30 zone.  But for this innocent girl, this really made me the bad boy she had been warned about, she had never been stopped and it scared her.  She was shaken, and she later settled down, but my reputation as a bad boy now exceeded my riding a motorcycle...I was a law breaker.. a felon at 25 mph.  My ride and prejudice were about to be exploited at work the next day....

Now her girlfriends at work could hardly wait to hear about her date, and when her opening line was the police pulled us over...the imaginations and gossip ran wild.  Instantly a chorus of “I told you he was bad” echoed, some warning her, others wanting a ride.  Tell me more... What is it about good girls and bad boys?  But she never got much further than the being stopped part of the date, and later told me she really had a good time.  Never mentioning her brush with the law.  The last time I ever dated anyone I worked with.  True story, but without the details, it was just another night with police intervention.  And to Sara, I would always be the felon at 25 mph, the slowest man in the van.  Her purity lost for going too slow...go figure.

Today we live in a world of sound bytes, but being misquoted, or not telling the whole story is nothing new.  Started in the Garden, Satan twisting God’s warning to Eve around.  Look at the consequences of a lie.  How many have been told or told others money is the root of all evil?  Not in the Bible, scripture tells us “the love of money is the root of all evil.”  Big difference, money is a form of barter, not evil.. Worshipping it is.  How many have been led astray by asking God for desires, then quoting Philipians 4:13, “I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me.”  Read the verses, Paul was bragging about how no matter the situation, Christ would take him through it.  Rich or poor.  In my case slow or fast.  Not a genie in the lamp as some desire, or aspire to.  The most conveniently misinterpreted verse about judging, usually brought up by people caught in sin, who don’t wish to be judged, but it is OK if they judge your words.  But really here Jesus is telling us to be alert, and discern people and their words and actions.  Good advice.  If only the cop had known to “not judge by appearance, but by my fruits,” as scripture tells us, John 7:24 and Matthew 7:16.  What an outcome difference to Sara’s recollection of our date.  And for her audience.

And of course this Good Friday let’s remember Pilate making a sign to hang over Jesus as he hung on the cross.  “The King of the Jews.”  And when the Jews argued, admitting he may have been a king, but not the king, Pilate says “I have written what I have written.”  Not knowing the truth in his statement.  So we do damage to others and ourselves by misquoting scripture.  A good rule of thumb is the 20/20 rule.  Read 20 verses before, and 20 verses after the one you quote, get the whole story.  Don’t base a theology or relationship on just one verse.  Or statement.  Truth be told, I was not a felon, and now laugh about being stopped for going too slow.  Maybe the fact I didn’t get a ticket is the repercussions the cop would have gotten. “Writing a ticket for too slow?  Breaking speed laws by not going as fast as the sign said? Impeding traffic when no other cars are present?”  Thankfully God is always present, and sees all.  And forgives all.  Cops too.

Just another date for me, but an eye opener for Sara.  She knew the truth, yet her interpretation led her to her opening line.  Seeking a thrill, being with a bad boy, but never becoming a bad girl.  But almost, escaping the annals of crime by the skin of her teeth. Her purity intact.  A heroine, how would you have told the story?  How did you hear it?

Remember that when you share Jesus.  Tell the truth, inspired by the spirit.  Too many wanting to hear a lie, or twisting your words.  Let God be God and all men liars.  Even on a first and only date, at 25 mph.   Study to be approved, seek the truth,let it set you free.  And never date anyone you work with.  The walls have ears, and eyes.  And sadly mouths.  Later my boss called me aside, hoping for steamy details of a date in my van.  “Honest Walter, we had a good time.  She is a nice girl.  We got stopped for 25 in a 30 zone.”  I could have said.  But I let him off easy, “that’s the kind of answer a gentleman would never tell about a lady.”  Both our reputations protected.  Only Sara and I will know the truth.  Only the stories have been changed to indict the innocent.

love with compassion,
Mike

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