the original social media

David and I always got along, a sort of respectful respect for our differing views.  But one thing we agreed on was BMW motorcycles, I had just arrived in Albuquerque on my R90S, from Jersey, and his family owned the multi-brand dealer there who sold BMW’s.  He was a skilled rider, a self trained engineer, and could tune by ear better than most with the specs.  He hand built a dyno and could provide jetting and tune up specs for any place you lived at any altitude.  I watched as he used to be a field rep for Champion spark plugs, reading plugs and making adjustments in the pits at a motocross race.  All things I could not do, I just rode.  I hadn’t seen him for over eight years and on a trip back to Albuquerque stopped in to see the new models.  Three cylinders mounted sideways and laying on their side on the frame, and fuel injected.  Just out of the crate, “would I like to be the first to ride one?”  As he tossed me the keys before I could answer.  But this new modern bike took some instruction on how to start it.  On my five previous BMW’s you turned on the gas, tickled the carbs until the gas soaked your foot, pushed the starter and hoped it would start, Varta batteries were junk then.  Then let it warm up.....no matter the temp.  As David turned the key, and pushed the starter, this new machine roared to life, “go, ride it,” and off I went.  Twenty minutes later coming back impressed, but a bit confused, a light had come on the dash, I was on reserve but no petcock to turn.  What the.....

And that was how I was introduced to the future of riding motorcycles with fuel injection.  No more physically turning on reserve, now a light would direct you.  And with the old BMW style of two petcocks you always had a reserve of reserve, now it was a light you hoped was as electronically accurate as the old style was physically.  His “oh by the way I forgot to mention the reserve light,” was laughed at, then a new way to ride, now accepted on all bikes.  But in one ride I had learned a lot, and my starting procedure would never be the same, as would be my time to get gas routine.  Sadly I can tell you on some bikes just how far to go until the light is still on, but the bike isn’t.  Seems progress was a good thing, it may have just gone on too long....

Now jus because you have a license doesn’t mean you know how to ride.  Like in life, you cannot teach motorcycling by a classroom technique, it must be experienced.  Once you get going you can learn to build speed, but whoever practices panic breaking.  Which may explain so many rear brake only Harley riders sliding to a crashing stop instead of stopping upright.  Or ending up on the hood of the car in front of you.  We used to play chicken seeing who could go the fastest and slam on our brakes.....which in real life came in handy more than once.  But the more miles the more experience, and the more familiar you become with riding.  And for those who love to ride the education is another excuse to just go for another ride.  Even the greatest talents practice, their level of expertise not reached until they do.  So where does this leave a Christian in today’s world?  With various teachings and ways to become a better Christian, where and when do we practice?  And by whom are we taught.....

Galatians 5 tells us to walk in the spirit and you will not gratify the flesh.  Becoming a Christian is not accepting a new set of rules, it is welcoming Jesus Christ into our hearts and yielding to the holy spirit.  Just as you cannot legislate love, you may know the rules, but it takes the spirit to guide and protect.  Although salvation is a one time event, walking in the spirit is a daily one, here the word Paul uses tells us to walk around and around with something, to journey.  Sound like any rides you have been on?  What a difference the holy spirit makes in your day.  More rules will not make you a better Christian, only by walking in the spirit will.  Memorizing verse may win you a contest, it is the holy spirit that saves and changes lives.  It was not a set or rules that met Paul on the road to Damascus, it was the holy spirit, yet we cling to rules as a sign of our salvation and God’s love.  Remember how Jesus told us he writes is words on our heart?  We are to be set apart from the ways of the world, which lives by rules, and called to live in the spirit that called us to Christ.  And as we listen more and more to the spirit, we become better at hearing his voice and being led by his spirit.  All the law of the Lord can be said in one sentence, “love your neighbor as yourself.”  Is your walk no better than a scorecard of the day’s events and your reactions?  Do you fall over the smallest sins and hide them?  But miss the objective.  The holy spirit just may be the original social media!

When Jesus comes into your life God just doesn’t throw you the keys to the kingdom, hoping you make it.  He gave us his spirit to guide and protect.  To know when to refuel and when to rest.  When to stop, and how to stop.  While more studies, knowledge, and church seat time may look good, and aren’t bad, without the spirit it is just religion, and a chance to brag on ourselves.  Does your walk reflect you or Jesus?  Who does it give glory too, all you think you know or who you know?  Next time you think you are schooled in the scriptures, engage an atheist, or a non-believer on the streets, and see how facts without the spirit will fail.  Absent the spirit, we are absent of God.  See how impressed they aren’t with your knowledge.  But show love.....even the lost get hungry and thirsty, lonely and tired.  Jesus fed the 500 who showed up, not who believed.  Or had manners.

Jesus will give you a  new starting procedure for your day.  Seek him first, then let him add in everything else.  You may be a push button away from a great ride or from pushing to a gas station.  Everyday in life will become a challenge, give yourself the advantage God offers.  And when life throws you a new set of keys, enjoy the ride, knowing the owner.  Lead us not into temptation, but let’s go for the ride!  Of our life.  Now that is one down and how many up.....

And if you ask about my next ride, I’m just out practicing....I already know the perfect.  In life as in riding, it isn’t the size of your motor, but who controls the throttle.

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

no appointment necessary

Her name was/is Mickey, last name not important, we had at least three of them in our customer files for various cars she owned.  She lived at at an exclusive La Jolla address, and was well known in the Village for getting her way.  Think of a nasty New York City/Miami Beach Jewish woman, and you pegged her.  Her outfits were straight out of the early sixties, hairdo included, and even in the hottest weather, wore a fox stole around her neck, rumor had it she had killed it with her bare hands, no one asked.  My first encounter was as the new guy at Mercedes Benz and she drove in.  Never an appointment, she just drove in and expected you to drop everything and take care of her.  I should have known when everyone scattered, and even the owner shut her office door, while some picked up the phone closest pretending to be on it.  Her words engaging me, “you’re new here.”  As if a death threat.  I forget the exact problem, but in a few minutes she was gone, and I was told when the owner came out from cover, “give her anything she wants and get rid of her quickly.”  I was soon to find out why....

Mercedes Benz 20 years ago had some big quality problems.  All the electronic goodies we take for granted today, were originated on their cars, and field tested many times before correct on their customers ala General Motors.  Mickey had a few of them.  And still being the new guy, I was thrown to her every time she came in.  With one memorable occasion, where she threatened me, and told me I would fix her car in 20 minutes while she waited or else.  So I fired back, “I didn’t build it or design it, i‘m just trying to fix it.  And the fix requires the car at least a day.  If you want it fixed, that is the best and quickest way to get it done.  You cannot tell us how to do our jobs.”  I think I saw a leg move on the fox.  With a look that could kill, and may have in the past, she calmly stated, “I like you, you have spunk, no one here ever talked to me that way before.  Tell me what to do...”  And I exhaled.....

And she gave me a twenty dollar tip, that would become a standard greeting after that.  Which all leads up to the real story here.  She had bought a new E class in Santa Monica, prewired for a phone, and you had to install the right one of four phones, or nothing.  A nationwide problem based on lazy salesman just handing their customer a box, she came to me to fix her problem.  So I called the dealer there, the salesman made excuses, so I talked to the sales manager.  More excuses.  So with her sitting across from me, I pulled out my hole card.  “Either you assure me in the next 45 minutes the correct phone will be here when we open in the morning, or I will plant her on your doorstep and you explain it to her.”  And hung up.  As she sat there grinning.....It only took ten minutes to be assured it would be here, the sales manager even offered to drive it down himself that afternoon.   We all laughed after, “did  you really say that?” the owner asked.  Only a grin was needed to answer......

Maybe there is something to a reputation after all.  It may get you your way, but often times it can get in the way.  In a world of instant everything, we want it now or we don’t want it at all.  We are never patient, and miss out on God’s blessings.  In heaven where there is no time frame, what will it matter in eternity, we place a high bounty on it now.  But patience being a part of the fruit of the spirit is overlooked.  One of the three givens in life, 1-you cannot have patience right now, 2-you cannot brag on how humble you are, and 3-you have to screw up to get mercy.  But you can wait upon the Lord and renew your strength when tired, or not get tired by doing so.  When we claim that God has everything under control, we neglect his timing element, which can be as foolish as his one day is the same as a thousand years.  Which we try to time.  He doesn’t worry about time, he created it.  For his own good, and for our own good.  He gave us seasons, night so we can have beautiful sunsets and sunrises, and in his eyes just like a day that has gone by.  So maybe the secret to time management is Jesus, to seek his will and way, for he was never late, and never hurried.  He offers us his plans for free, for our benefit, yet how many hurry up and pray before going to work, or fall asleep during long drawn out repititious prayers?  All things work on God’s time table, from creation to defining a day, to the three days for Jesus to be resurrected, to the day when he calls his church home to heaven.  Imagine any one event in Biblical history being changed and you can only imagine the outcome.  So how many of us have prayed “teach me my number of days so I may gain wisdom?”  The Psalmist did...and we can too.  Through out all generations sang Moses, including ours which he had no idea about, but God does. 

So why hurry and read through the Bible in a year, when you can relax and enjoy the blessings he has for us today?  Why rush when you don’t have to?  Why create a problem when the answers to problems are inside?  We all talk about having more time to spend with God, so why hurry?  Another religious habit to rob us of God’s glory.  Seek ye first the kingdom of God, not of religion.  Do you meditate on the things of God during the day?  Do you see something and think of him?  Do you need communion to remember him?  Do you ever sing Jesus words to secular songs?  Did you know you can sing Amazing Grace to the theme to Gilligan;s Island?  Or even America the Beautiful?  Try it and see.  Meditating on his amazing grace.  What does it take for us to stand up and quick hurrying, worrying, and wasting time?  Just because we have forever.....is no excuse.

So when I stood up to Mickey, it was really about time more than fixing her car.  Hurry up and wait, my schedule, my way, my own problem.  Do we have enough spunk to admit our faults and give them to God?  Could it be we are wasting away our in between times with Jesus, because we are in a hurry to get to our next meeting, service, or prayer session?  Do you look at you watch more than you do your Bible?  Is your day time filled with appointments but none for God?  He made you and the time for you, just ask him, “Lord I need you, what can I do?”  Don’t wait until you are threatened and find he was on your doorstep the whole time, you were just too busy.  I for one am glad doesn’t give me anything I want and just to get rid of me.  Maybe a walk in your heart of gardens is in order.....just you and Jesus.  In the garden alone.  Like the song says, “he walks with me and talks with me, and tells me I am his own.”  Know anyone other than you that needs to hear those words?

And no appointment necessary....

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

it's brown and sounds like a bell

Question, what’s brown and sounds like a bell?  Answer later.

The first time I saw Durango, Colorado, I made the comment that if I had to shovel horse turds to live there, I would do it.  Apparently someone heard my prayer, as I ended up working at a gas station, Trailways depot, and petroleum jobber for $2.25/hour.  We sold diesel, Stoddard solvent, propane, and kerosene by the gallon or pound, baking in the summer heat at 6500’ altitude, and freezing at below zero in the winter months.  How many trips were made for two bucks of gas, we were a full service station, or walking to the back lot to fill a propane tank, when the contents were as cold as the outside air.  Little old ladies coming in with their Mason jars for 30 cents of coal oil, aka kerosene, to light their fires at home.  All done without gloves, as the small lock and key were unusable with bulky gloves.  Changing tires and fixing flats, scraping snow from windshields while the owner sat inside with the heater on full.  Some nights so cold and clear we once spilled some diesel #2 on the ground and watched it gel immediately.  Kicking it around until it burst all over our shoes.  How many diesel owners from Texas had to have their fuel lines with our steam cleaner to free them up, afterwards washing our hands in cold water, as the owner shut off the hot, too many transients used the bath room for cleaning up.  A tough job but like I said, I said what I said......and I haven’t even gotten to the bad part yet!

We were a Trailways bus depot, we would fill the buses, and dump the crappers.  A wonderful job in the summer when the opened valve just let it explode everywhere, and then spraying the dump area and your shoes off with the hose.  But in winter, the warm turds hit the ground and froze, and you had to hit them with the water from the hose until they would soften up enough to go down the drain, or until your hands turned blue.  All because in my prayers, I made it clear to God what I would do to get my desires, to get my way.  A long way from “thy will be done...”  and I still can smell the toxic odor of the one shot blue disinfectant every once in a while, if only in my dreams/nightmares....

Two things influenced me with that job, one I never wanted to do it again, and I learned a great respect for those who do the thankless jobs for low pay that no one else wants to do.  I actually feel compassion when we go past the fields in the Central Valley, watching the migrant field workers toiling away.  I’ve been there.  When a new kid at the counter knows nothing and he waits on me, I try to be kind, I was once a trainee too.  Even the kids who cannot speak English at the fast food places, hopefully it is not their last job, and at least they are working.  Sometimes we don’t realize how good we have it until we don’t, or look back in humor at what we once did.  The job stunk literally, but we had many funny times, met a lot of people, I learned about serving, and also not to tell God how to or what I must have.  A great lesson in asking him for his will to be done...

While the Pharisees were running around telling everyone how holy they were, and  condemning those who weren’t for even breaking the smallest of laws or tradition, Jesus chose compassion.  In his travels he saw the multitude and how harassed and helpless they were, and showed compassion to them.  To one woman with multiple husbands, drawing water from a distant well as she was not permitted to use the local one, he talked with her, another Pharisee sin, and offered her living water, so she would never thirst again.  Spiritual water, for in finding Jesus she would never thirst again spiritually, but still have to go to a well for water.  Her new well would spring up from within her as she had the holy spirit dwelling in her, and a new freedom not found in the legalism of the day, or even in many religions today.  Do what we say, how we say, when we say as the pastor hides behind the pulpit.  Failing to see that more laws mean more laws to break and more sin, and lacking the compassion Jesus had on the crowd and on us individually.  How nice to hear “your sins are forgiven, go and sin no more.” 

So to those trained or raised in a setting where “Jesus is coming and boy is he mad,” or those living in a false fear of retribution from God, remember Jesus came to forgive, not to condemn.  Our sins condemn us, he saves us.  How often do we just need a hug rather than an hour sermon on his love, leaving worse off than when we arrived.  But one thing happens when we are treated harshly, we return it to others harshly, but when we are shown compassion, we can reward others with it also.  Our choice, no matter how we are treated, no matter, Jesus showed compassion to all.  If only we can remember God owns the field, sends the workers, and then rewards them, with all glory going to him, how our attitude of compassion might change.  And our prayer life...

I find it amusing today how far the church has gotten away from the gospel.  Programs, processes, and procedures dominate, but remember when Jesus asked his disciples what they wanted, they responded “teach us to pray,” and gave them the Lord’s prayer.  With the answer in two verses, “thy will be done,” the toughest four words you’ll ever pray, and “on earth, as it is in heaven,” for wherever you are, so is the spirit within you.  On earth or in heaven after death, Jesus is with you always.  So even in tough times, in wrong prayer followed by wrong actions, he never leaves us, but wants to show us compassion and redeem us.  There is nothing he cannot fix if we let him.  For we cannot do anything apart from him....and I’ve tried.

Cold hands and a cold heart are no way to go through life.  I dreaded dumping crappers but it was the job that I had signed up for, and do it or find another job.  But you get used to regular meals, and even at $2.25/hour an occasional Big Mac could be celebrated.  But it is in the toughest of times that Jesus shines the brightest, and there is always the chance that this is what God wanted, and what I needed.  So I leave it up to Jesus, he knows best, for without struggles we never get to see him at his finest hour, forgiving, giving, showing compassion, and building us up in him.  So in all things give him the glory, and leave it up to him.  In praying like in life, it helps to know which end of the shovel is preferable.  And how rewarding in door plumbing really is......seems there is a bit of Cousin Eddie in all of us after all.

So what is brown and sounds like a bell.....DUNG!

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.xom

which reminds me.....

It was thinking about my old friend Brett that got me started, he the one who invited me over to see his new motorcycle, a 1974 SR 500 Yamaha, and the engine was already in the kitchen sink.  His favorite story was about a man with an old Dodge van, with three on the tree.  It kept hanging up in second gear, and he would have to reach through the grill which cut his hand to release it.  When he asked his friend to look at it, the man told him “park it across from my shop and I can see it from there,” he hated Dodges.  He received a call at five minutes to traffic jam that it was fixed, and picking it up, made it as far as the corner, where it stuck in second gear.  Getting out and cursing his mechanic friend, he noticed duct tape over the sharp edge, so he wouldn’t cut his hand.  His friend had fixed the problem, not solved it.  “You didn’t cut your hand did you?” was the response he got when asking the mechanic about his van.....well...

Which got me thinking about another old friend in Connecticut, Phil.  He was the BMW motorcycle guru in the metro area, and through my friend Geno,  we met.  He loved my R90S, and sometimes after fiddling with it, we would race around the back roads, him chasing in his old BMW with his girlfriend in the sidecar taking pictures.  I thought I was pretty cool and fast, until someone pointed out a three wheeler was keeping up with me....But what I most remember about Phil was his winter car, an old Checker cab painted Krylon green.  It always overheated, so Phil had connected the heater hoses to the heater core, so the heater was always on, great on frosty Connecticut winter days.  But hell on summer days, as I found out one day on a parts run with him.  In this case it was both the heat and the stupidity...I still wonder if sniffing all that antifreeze was good for me.....

Then there was my old friend Rex, who was rewriting the Suzuki tech manuals, correcting mistakes.  His winter car was a 1972 Torino, nice car with one exception, at 60 mph it shook like the wheels were coming off.  Seems it needed a u-joint, so Rex kept it below 60.  On one January ride from Prescott to Durango in a blizzard, crossing the Indian reservation every once in awhile he hit 60 and it shook.  I had visions of being found the next spring like the Donner party, where two guys had been found walking near the car, and after checking out the Ford and never going 60, not knowing the problem and a legacy begins....

Another old friend was of the persuasion that the 750 Honda was the best motorcycle ever made.  His was already old when I met him, and it was always breaking down, nicknamed “the bike you want to ride if you don’t want to get where you’re going.”  After the first meeting and being made fun of for using the electric leg on my bike, we finally rode off.  True to form within 30 minutes we were pulled over, which was repeated the next time we rode.  I finally came up with excuses not to ride with him, but when forced to, made sure I led, so as not to get covered in oil.  But our last ride together left the Honda smoking and groaning, and him on the phone with another Honda junkie, who owned two, so he always had one ready to ride.  Never saw him again, but every time I hear how the Honda 750 changed the world, I remember how it almost changed mine.....

And finally a Harley friend who kept oil in his saddle bags, HD brand of course, can’t use anything else.  Later I learned the two quarts were enough for a 500 mile day on an over nighter.  He measured his rides in quarts per day,while we were miles per day.  I often wonder if his bags could hold three or four quarts, would he have ridden farther.....all the time bragging how it used no oil, didn’t smoke, and he never had to service it, just keep adding oil....

Jesus tells us of the wise man who built his house upon the rock, and when the storms came was safe.  I wonder how many of us are built on that rock or on shifting sands of religion? Lots of sand and shifty people out there.   I consider people I have known over the years, the one who is always calling for prayer, who is the first one up after the service to see the pastor, but never listens to the answer.  Who when called to pray, is too busy and burdens you with her problems.  Whose radio presets are all on KWVE, yet never talks with her kids, except via texting.  And wonders what is their problem?  I get concerned about the guy who reads the Christian book of the week, and whose library is filled with commentaries.  Always seeking, just never finding, just don’t ask him.  I know Christian parents who leave the church to raise their children in the Lord, then wonder why they wander, imitating their parents’ lifestyle.  And of course that mighty church family, always blaming Satan, always under attack when they don’t get their own way.  A foot deep in pride, an inch deep in Jesus.  But Jesus tells us it is the person who puts his words into practice, who just doesn’t hear them, that is built upon the rock, his rock of salvation.  It seems foundations matter, just look at the Leaning Tower of Pisa, not built on a firm foundation, and it is tilted.  How many of us can claim Jesus is the foundation of our life, and not the things of the world, even if they sound Christian and look Christian?  How many of the poor remain that way based on poor theology?  When dealing with the Navajos, a friend once explained their theology, whenever a new evangelist came tot own, they just added his story to the existing ones, a long list of beliefs, based on no foundation.  Yes they believed in Jesus, but which one, which version, which Jesus?  A strong LDS area, where if you ain’t LDS you are nothing, they were both, LDS and nothing.  So beware...still tilting?

The Bible is not just a how to book, or just a history book.  It is God reaching out to you so we can be reunited with him despite our sin.  From the fourth word in Genesis, Jesus is there, to the end in Revelation.  Yet we all have our favorite scripture, like the man whose Bible pages are all highlighted for future reference, not reverence.  Whose life falls apart under a crisis, ruining any witness he has about him and Jesus.  Why would we want to be like him?  We used to call them carnal Christians, saved but still large and in charge, with them sitting on the throne, Jesus at their feet, to provide their every whim and want.  Sadly they don’t last long, and when the body who they need to nourish them turns on them, all of the church, us, suffers.  Jesus even warned them, “be gone, I never knew you.”  So what is your Jesus built on?  You may be a pretty building and be sinking and not know it, making excuses for your sins.  You can have all the right characteristics, read all the right books, attend the right church faithfully, but without Jesus these are just things, not bad things, but just things, if Jesus is not your foundation.  And you will be tested....read your Bible about Joseph, Noah, Abram, Sampson, Jonah, Job, and the twelve disciples.  And Jesus, who when tested had his feet on holy ground, his heavenly father.  We are designed so we cannot save ourselves, or do it alone.  Either it’s Jesus or nothing....

Like the radio in Phil’s Checker.  When I asked him why all the presets were set to the same station, he said “it doesn’t matter, the radio doesn’t work anyway....”  Jesus accomplished what we cannot.  What are your presets tuned to?  Built on obedience through trust, or on your own strength?  Jesus, the foundation that cannot be washed away, but in him our sins can be. 

Which reminds me of........

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com