one afternoon on the 405

At an early age I was impressed with a Ken Purdy story, of driving down the highway and passing a Ferrari parked along the side.  He was cruising at 70 mph, and within a minute, the Ferrari appears in his rear view mirror.  In a flash it blows by him, and in a few seconds is gone completely.  His response, “gentlemen, that is speed.”  As much as I have been impressed by fast cars and bikes, I always wanted to be the guy in the Ferrari, just blowing by a sports car, for no other reason than I could.  Speed is a relative thing, brought down to reality by numbers on the speedometer or a cop writing you a ticket, but no matter the speed, no matter who is part of the bench racing, someone is always faster.  And as we get older, some get faster, and the lies bigger.  Like the 150 mph Sportster, or the Chevelle doing 130 and the shifting into fourth gear, we know they aren’t true.  But speed has always captivated us, how many of us were once the kid pumping gas and looking at a 150 mph speedo on a motorcycle and asking “wow, will it go that fast?” and the owner knowing it won’t but not wanting to burst our bubble, smiles and nods “been there myself.”  As we take it all in, and pass the story along as the days go by.  Attaining a certain celebrity status at every retelling, as if we were along for the ride.

George Carlin, comedienne and philosopher, once remarked, “anyone going slower than you is a moron, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac.”  Seems he has broken down the society of drivers into two categories, and we each fall into one.  Or the other.  One afternoon riding down the 405 at 70, a miracle in itself, one lane was noticeably backed up, while the others were moving at 70.  Thinking it may be an accident ahead, or a moron who didn’t know how to drive or shouldn’t be, as I passed on the left I looked to see who it was.  To my surprise it was my father in law, who when he saw me smiled and waved.  I took off not wanting to be embarrassed....maybe finding out more than I needed or wanted to know about the family I married into.  He was a moron to me, I was a maniac to him.  Which raised more questions than it provided answers.  Proving speed is a relative thing in more ways than one.

But one thing I have noticed over the years is that everyone in every condition, no matter the road or its posted speed drives a speed they feel comfortable at.  Each moron in his own little world, just as each maniac is.  Until the two meet....and something happens.  Being a sucker for happy endings, sometimes I am suckered more than a sucker.  In a time when there was no king of Israel, we are told every man did was right in his own eyes.  Sounds like some drivers I know, but it also tells us that as we judge by what we see from the outer man, God looks at the heart and makes judgment. Many times I have passed a big dollar sports car driven by a woman out of control on her cell phone, thinking “what a waste of car,” unable to hear her conversation.  “This maniac just sped by me on his motorcycle, what’s the matter with people like that?”  Only to end up sitting in the same row with her at church.  Both of us convinced we are right and the other wrong....scary to think how God sees our hearts.  We forget there is a consequence when we make up our own gospel as we go along, maybe we are all morons and don’t want to admit it.  Or don’t until reminded by someone else.  But God reminds us there is a penalty for sin, or for going your own way and straying from the truth.  But because he loves us he sent Jesus to be the way back, so we can have a relationship with him, and enter heaven, rather than being cast into hell. 

Throughout scripture we see the law of retribution revealed, there is a penalty for each wrongdoing.  We live in a universe guided by God’s rules, not ours, and even the atheist who denies God’s existence will come before him someday.  Life is based on Jesus Christ, the way, and the life, the truth on our rules.  You may never see an electric current, but touch it wrong and you know of its existence.  God has given us physical laws to live by, deny them and it could be death.  Deny his spiritual laws and it means death.  No do overs like in kickball, either you are in or out.  No instant replay.....you enter eternity either a moron or a maniac.  Maybe better described by the Greek as idiotes, those who believed whatever came along, and perfectly describing religion today.  What ever makes the crowd happy and comfortable, don’t want to upset them about sin and its consequences, mention Jesus and suddenly we are talking religion.  Forgetting Jesus came to rescue us from religion and its bondage.  Yet many are too slow and passed by regarded as morons, or fly by too quickly regarded as maniacs.  Only when using Jesus as the common denominator do we see our sin and that we all fall short.  Even on the 405....

The problem with speed, power, money, or looks is that there is always someone faster and quicker, more powerful, richer, or better looking.  Only Jesus breaks it down to love, and that because he loved us first, we can love him now.  When we go beyond moron and stop just short of maniac, we can see Jesus as he really is.  How he is implanted in every area of our lives, but doesn’t interfere, but waits for an invitation to come in.  Napoleon when asked who would win the war, replied “God is on the side of the one who has the heaviest artillery.”  But later in defeat, despite the heavier artillery, claimed “ man proposes, God disposes.”  So God has instilled in us the basic for knowing him, our sin, but also the way to know him personally.  Jesus.  The elemental beginning of life begins when we learn to fear and respect God.  When we find out who really is in control, and it ain’t us.  Turn to him today, or as I lane split in stop and go traffic, I pass the Ferrari stuck next to the Hyundai or the SUV, all idling at zero miles per hour.  The great equalizer.  Moron or maniac, you decide.  Maybe the blind man given his sight by Jesus said it best, “I don’t know if he is good or bad, all I know is that I was blind and now I see.”  Gentlemen, that is power.  That is Jesus.  That is love.  Proved again and again like one afternoon on the 405.  Hang on for the ride of your life!

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

sometimes you do meet the nicest people on a Harley

While our riding partner Bruce went off in search of museums, Christopher and I decided to get our fix at the motorcycle shops in Vancouver, BC.  It was at the Yamaha shop we found out about Trev Deeley, the long time Harley Davidson importer, who just happened to have once imported Triumph and Yamahas to Canada.  They told us of a museum he has with bikes over 85 years old, Harley was still a young 86 at the time.  So off in the rain, how British, we went in search of his building, in a non-descript, older part of the warehouse area.  Funny how the combination of a foreign land, they do speak English there, and an unknown area when mixed with rain causes confusion, but after few passes, we took a chance, and it was right where we were told, now so were we.  An old brick two story warehouse, taller than it was wide, we went in and were greeted by the receptionist, who offered us hot drinks, which we accepted.  She asked if we minded waiting, seems Cycle World was doing an article on the museum upstairs, and would we mind waiting in the office of the president.  He didn’t seem to mind, and after 15 minutes of great talk, she motioned CW was gone, actually they were still upstairs, but we could go up.  As she pointed to the narrow stairs, a man in a wheelchair with two friends came in, also wanting to see the museum.  But she told them they had no elevator, and his wheelchair was even wider than the steps.  When a burly warehouseman appeared over her shoulder, “ever ride on a forklift?” His answer a bewildered stare.  “If you don’t mind, we have access through an upstairs outer door we use to unload motorcycles, it will hold a wheelchair with you, interested?”  Being brave he was, and we all went out and watched as the forklift operator carefully lifted him two stories, in the rain, and placed him in the door.  It looked like it was way up there, from the wheelchair it must have looked like a thousand feet!  But he made it safe, the Cycle World guys took pictures and added him to the story, and an incredible morning was had by all.  You see, sometimes you do meet the nicest people on a Harley......

Rock music tells us we have a stairway to heaven, but a high way to hell.  Quite a contrast.  But it takes thinking outside our terminally small minds to see God in it all.  Under Jesus, God gives us a New Covenant, one with no dates mentioned in it, everlasting, and it is available to all, Jew and Gentile alike.  Bikers, too.  He tells us he will put his law, which is love, in our minds, and write his word in our hearts, who is Jesus.  Under the Old Covenant it was all about external. and based on our performance.  The new one under Jesus, is all about what he did for us on the cross, and is all about the internal change God provides in and to us.  And by his spirit we will have all the power we need, no longer do we have to go it alone, no longer under Mosaic laws, but Jesus brings it down to one, love God first with all you have, and then love man the same way.  He supplies, we act and benefit.  Only a loving God be so gracious and forgiving.  No longer when Christians meet will we be strangers, but friends we haven’t met yet, but with the commonality of Jesus, his spirit will unite us.  We share Jesus, so we can share the new life in him.  Based on being forgiven, another great equalizer, before we were all united by our sin, now we are united by his forgiveness.  We no longer have to go it alone, but we have Jesus, who sustains us, supplies us, forgives and encourages us, and all we need to do is believe.  The focus is on who he is and what he has done, not who we are and what we have done.  A covenant like no other, because there is no other like Jesus.

But yet some chase the highway to hell, thinking they have to or must go it alone.  A true blow to the ego when told they cannot, but still race on.  But just like Jacob saw a ladder to heaven, life is taken in many small steps, until you meet a simple obstacle like no elevator and are grounded.  Yet like the warehouseman who offered the wheelchair bound man a lift, God offers us that same lift.  Seems he is not bound by highways, steps, or no elevators.  His plan for you includes him, and in him we can do and go places mere mortals cannot.  We all clapped and rejoiced standing in the rain as the man was lifted, imagine the fanfare in heaven when one lifts his hands and heart in forgiveness and comes to Christ.  Loud pipes may save lives, but they couldn’t meet the man’s need that day. So many Harleys, but only one forklift.  Not even a v-twin.  When we ride with Jesus, marvelous things happen, we are part of the family, under the New Covenant, forgiven and saved.  Later in our conversation with Bruce, he wondered, “how do you always find such neat places?”  We know a neat God, who is cool. 

You may be one highway away from hell, or one stairway away from heaven.  That morning all it took was a forklift to answer a prayer.  Miracles occur everyday, in everyway.  You might meet the nicest people on a Honda, that day it was all about Harleys and a forklift.  Just like Jesus, one offered, the other accepted, and his whole world changed by what he could see.  Blind from below, a new vision when lifted up.  With no animals harmed or loud pipes heard....

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

memories from before you could remember them

Watching a Mecum Motorcycle Auction on TV last night, I was amazed at all the gray hair in the crowd.  Guys like me or older, who have the memories of the bikes being auctioned off from when they were new.  Old guys on walkers who remember the first 1957 Sportster.  Criticizing the right hand shift.  Some who a few years later would have sold all hey had or didn’t have for the new Bonneville in 1959.  Some a few years younger, who couldn’t afford the big bikes of Harley, Triumph, BSA, Norton, and others, who bought Japanese, smaller in size, weird in appearance, but not in performance.  Then in 1968, BSA and Triumph Triples, who wouldn’t have hung out at the local shop just wanting to get a peek, or sit on one.  Only to be upstaged a year later by Honda’s 750, and that’s where I came in.  The first bike I lusted for other than the dirt bikes I played on, was the Mach III Kawasaki, 500cc of blue smoke, two stroke craziness.  Maybe the first bikes I could truly remember seeing in a showroom because I was there.  All the others existed before I rode, and those who rode and remember them are fading like their hairlines.  When did it first happen to you, what was that first bike you remember seeing and having to have?  The one just out of your fiscal reach, what would you pay for it today?  For just one last ride back to when it all first happened.....

As I hang out in shops today I am the old guy, my memories go back way before many of them were born.  They question how we ever kick started a 750cc bike, why would we ride a two stroke and mess with mixing gas and oil?  A tune up every 6000 miles?  Twin rear shocks?  Tubeless tires?  Only spoked rims?  And as the stories get passed down, they wonder how we did it, and how we are still around today to tell about it.  Mention TT pipes to today’s Triumph rider and get a “huh?”  Choppers were all Triumphs 50 years ago, and all shifted on the right side.  Lello had an old Kawasaki with a rotary transmission, about 100cc of fear, as it shifted N-1-2-3-4-N.  Then back to first again!  Unbelievable, I rode one.  Dunstall Nortons and Hondas, I put Dunstall Low Decibel pipes on my R90S, what a sound!  Sissy bars, psychadelic helmets, or no helmet at all.  Windjammer fairings, Krauser bags for my BMW, bungee cords and back packs, all signs of the time when I first started riding.  Things  can remember and relate to because I was there.  Anything before that was everlasting, as in before me.  I depend on those who rode before to keep it real, and those younger depend on my age to keep it real.  Sometimes a far distant reality than they care to relate to.

So how far back is everlasting?  For us it means time, but for God it means forever, as in an infinity of yesterdays, for no matter how far back we go, God was there before us.  Before the beginning, when he created the heaven and earth out of nothing, he was everlasting.  He has seen it all because he as been there for it.  With an everlasting love for us.  Before being formed in the womb, he loved us.  While we were yet sinners, Jesus died for us.  His memories and love for us are everlasting, beyond any dimension we can imagine or think of, to a memory greater than we can think.  Yet how often in the midst of our trials do we wonder if he knows or even cares?  Where is the everlasting love he speaks of?  Why do we try to compartmentalize his love when it knows no boundaries?  It is hard to think of God being compassionate when we are suffering, but we forget how much he suffered through Jesus to give us life, to reunite with us.  We need the white beards and gray haired men who have lived along life in Christ to remind us of how it was, so we can see how it still is, and how it will be.  Everlasting to the end, including now.  Right now.

We all live or have lived in a Golden Age, an age when it all was new and exciting.  When our first ride was too short, and our first time with Jesus far beyond words.  When we were the kids that we talk to today and lovingly share the past.  With an everlasting love from God, who we love because he loved us first.  A passion created by him for us, to include him, to make us whole, for he is holy, complete.  For some of us it was the first sub 13 second 1/4 mile, the first time over 100 mph, disc brakes that really stopped us, and Castrol Bean oil.  When a twin meant vee or parallel, when an inline 4 was news, and an electric leg to start it all became standard.  I can still remember my first non-electric leg bike, my 1981 KZ750, with tubeless tires.  What next we all wondered?  How we remember those times will tell of a passion we had, and some haven’t given it up, at least not yet.  But do we have a passion for Christ the same way?  Listen to the stories the testimonies, of worship teams with acoustic guitars, song sheets with no overheads, and fellowships in homes on weeknights.  Just you and God, and his people, wanting to get closer, the koineia we were searching for, that was there all the time.  Everlasting to everlasting, with us included.  Today, and to be shared tomorrow.  Memories we can share because we were there, but so was God.  We owe it to the younger generation to keep the memories fresh, with each ride newer and more exciting.  To respect those who had a Sportster that would part the hair on your chest, or put some there if you didn’t have any.  Until a 250 two stroke blew by.  Both bikes and riders got heavier, but the ride doesn’t change, unless we do.  From everlasting to everlasting, the passion may diminish, Jesus’ love for us never will. Anything before I as born was history, with a lot of it still being made today.  Don’t shut God out, the audience may change, his love never does.  Which may explain why us old guys never have just one collector bike.....some things are just too good to never let go of....like a relationship with Jesus.  Oh what fun it is too ride....

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com