riding the heavenlies

There is something about two wheels that has always fascinated me.  From my first two wheeler with hard rubber tires, to my next bike, a convertible where you could remove the bar so a girl could ride it, or a boy too small, I have wanted to ride places.  To see where the road goes, to ride my own pace, and stop at all the places I wondered about riding in the back seat of my parents’ Rambler.  Places I wanted to stop at, but only got a glimpse at while passing by.  Bicycles took me to Cranford and Plainfield, expanding my riding universe 10 miles in each direction, but when motorcycles came into my life, only my desires and imaginations slowed me down, but rarely stopped me.  Riding to my grandparents house 60 miles way became a ride with many detours to explore the Pennsylvania countryside, to ride along the Delaware on SR32, a road just made for two wheels of fun.  To ride into the small towns I heard the old folk talk about, and to see their conversations come alive.  The road was calling, I answered, and after riding over a million miles in 48 states, no Hawaii until the bridge is completed, I still have a desire to see where that road goes when in a new area.  Back roads are calling again, or still, where real America is, one not found via a freeway exit.  Or even a guidebook.  It is roads marked “Old,” or that weave up a mountain, or through a valley, that take longer because there is more to ride and see that I look for.  And in doing so find places that others pass by, eat meals that others at first would be cautious about, but that bring me back, and people who are just folk, living and forgiving, a far cry from the demographics we are ruled by.  To me it is called America, and I cannot ride enough of it, and each ride makes me appreciate it even more.

While I have never ridden the Dragon, I have ridden the Snake,with more turns, and less traffic.  I have followed Route 66, with some excursions off it, and found the people and roads that 66 used to be before becoming a tourist attraction.  Ever ride across the Y bridge in Zanesville, Ohio, I have.  Gotten lost after riding over the old suspension bridge in Wheeling, West Virginia, and saw the real city of history.  I have walked up the mission tower in San Juan Bautista made famous in Vertigo.  Ridden the 10 steepest hills in San Francisco, and ridden past closed gates just to see what is on the other side.  Taken ferry rides to places with my motorcycle instead of being a walk on passenger.  I have ridden over the Cumberland Pass in a white out, seen sunsets sitting on mountain tops, and dipped my front tire in the Pacific, Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, and Lake Michigan.  Dipped, not dropped.  I have eaten fried clams in Two Lights, Maine, pasties in the Upper Peninsula, fish tacos in Baja, and BBQ’ed across America.  All on two wheels.....and the fascination continues.

Scripture tells us we are blessed in the heavenly realms, which gets many to thinking of life after death.  But Paul explains we don’t have to wait for death to obtain heaven or the heavenlies, they are available as soon as we become a Christian.  For the heavenlies he is talking of consist of the thoughts of our inner mind we have now, and continue on into heaven, not begin or end there.  These heavenlies may start in conflict, but are revealed in our deepest thoughts of Jesus himself, where the spirit reaches our emotions, our heart, and our will.  They are a restlessness that only Jesus can satisfy, and available to all who are in Christ Jesus.  Now.  For the taking, and to be part of our relationship with him.  They are a gift form God, not available to those not saved, but only to Christians who know Jesus personally.  There is nothing keeping them from us, so we need to know what they are, and how to access them.

They go beyond physical laws or theological ideas.  Way beyond the knowledge of knowing the Bible, but an intimacy that comes form knowing Jesus, and wanting all of him you can get.  Maybe a selfish thought, but who doesn’t want all the blessings that God provides?  But settles for far less.  Blessings that become personal, that go beyond definition or description.  Blessings that come from Jesus via his spirit, and he has so many we cannot count them all.  Identified as the fruit of the spirit, the fruit of Jesus Christ available from him, not on our own.  Like a road not found on a map, it takes wonder and wander to go deeper in Christ, to not trip over words but see what they show us about Jesus.  Personally.  It starts with faith, for without faith it is impossible to please God, the spirit already calling to you.  Then it becomes a social interaction, legalism sets in, as we fit into the Christian community, and want to please God, and man.  But as we go from throwing fleeces like Gideon did, to trusting God like a young David did against Goliath, or a young Abraham did when picking a direction, then we open up the pathways to the heavenlies described.  Biblical ideas and promises do you no good until you believe them enough to trust God and act on them.  To trust him that even if you fall, he will catch you.  To risk that the road he shows you is the right road, less travelled because you do not fall into the bondage of religion.  In church or on the road.  A depth we cannot perceive, because you cannot teach about the heavenlies, you must experience them first hand.  Things you cannot see, and once you do cannot be described in finite words, for you are following an infinite God, who has so much more to offer than our feeble minds can handle.  What a joy to find my desire to ride is based on wanting to go further in the spirit, and I can see Jesus much better now because of the rides he has taken me on.  I have only begun to enjoy the heavenlies after one million miles, don’t wait as long as I have to experience all God has to offer.  We only learn as much as the teacher knows to teach, my teacher is the spirit, the great rabbi, the one who created the universe.  And your teacher’s credentials are?

Go beyond church, go beyond religion, go beyond memorization, and go with Jesus.  For God so loved me he gave me motorcycles, and his spirit to bless me when riding.  What has he given you that you don’t fully enjoy?  My first passion is Jesus, and he adds all other things unto me then.  Roads, rides, motorcycles, sunsets, bridges, unexpected meals when I am hungry and places I never heard of and would have passed by otherwise.  Did you know there is a Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania?  Talk about a view, and then you can ride through it.  Want to see what God can create out of dust, ride the Loess Hills, made from blowing dust.  And see his hand on creating them.  Meet a man while fueling up in Tennessee and find a great Civil War ride in Georgia.  Ride the Keys, cross the Mississippi seven times in one day, eat at a bunkhouse, and sleep in an old inn with the only bathroom down the hall, which is better than it being outside.  All places I never would have seen or ridden if not spirit driven.  A curiosity that only comes from above, so can only be answered by the same. 

It is in those spiritual urges from God that we go deeper.  Where we see clearer, and the word comes alive.  Beyond knowledge, we grasp the wisdom of the creator, and see the beauty of his creation as he sees it.  For me a hunger for the road has opened my eyes to the deeper things of Christ.  What can he do for you if you only let him.  He gives you the desires of your heart, and when he is that desire, there is no end to where you can go.  The heavenly realms are here, will you take the next step and trust him?  After all, what part of blessing don’t you understand, yet?  When words fail, the spirit comes through every time.

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

dyno tested lives

The dyno doesn’t lie.  It tells exactly how much power is being put out at that moment.  A tool that is used by many to prove bragging rights, “my bike puts out 111.6 hp on the dyno,” and since yours only puts out 109.3 my bike is faster.  Bragging rights, that don’t necessarily translate into faster or quicker.  They are just numbers on a graph, and true tuners can make them work for them.  True, you may have more power at redline, but who drives at redline?  We spend most of our time starting and stopping, and riding in between, how many brag about their power while cruising?  Years ago it became a focus, speeds from 40-60, then 60-80 gave a better indication of where the true power laid, but again was measured in high gear.  Don’t we all downshift for maximum power application?  And so another argument is better left to the street to be proven.  But with computers doing the tuning for us now, an engineer can arrange for power delivery at any given rpm to translate to road speed.  Much more complex than stated, but that is the end result.  For instance our 2015 Mustang V-6, has 300 hp, can go from 0-60 in 5 seconds, do the quarter in the high 13’s, hallowed ground for muscle cars from the 60’s.  But also on our last two road trips, we averaged over 26 mpg one trip, and over 27 the next.  The computer put the power where it was needed, how I cannot explain, but you don’t need full on 300 hp when cruising, but do on acceleration.  And the dyno tells the engineer where the power is, how much throttle is being used, and they can tune the engine then.  All done electronically, which years ago took months of testing to achieve.  Now you just put your foot in it and go, or twist the throttle, which is now electrical.  But still the power ratings entice us.....

When Triumph brought out the new Bonnevilles last year, we were disappointed in the power ratings, the horsepower was down, but torque up substantially.  But few brag on torque, until we rode one.  And found the power where it was needed, immediate, and no weak spots until close to redline, but which time you would have shifted anyway.  Roll on power when needed in everyday events, not just on a dyno for bragging purposes.  They were right, we read it wrong, the street was the test.  We all won on that one, just like the Mustang, real life is the test.  But yet still many are into bragging rights about their dyno testing, not realizing that temperature, humidity, and other factors effect the outcome.  A 110 hp ride one day can be only 103 on the same dyno tomorrow.  Or 111 later.  All based on external factor, the dyno just reveals what it is seeing at that time.  In that moment in time based on the conditions.  The numbers don’t lie, the motor may be tweaked, but later readjusted for the next run.  Computers do most of it now, thousands of times a second, making our rides self tuning in that respect, always seeking the best for the conditions based on sensory input, numbers may change, but it is still up the rider/driver to put it pedal to the metal or WFO on the throttle.  All the power displayed means nothing in the wrong hands, and at that point bragging rights are just that, bragging.  Right?

Years ago I attended a church that had a man of the year award.  Given for performance, read duty to the church in the name of God.  Certain criteria were set up, and the men in the church tried to live by and up to the demands, in order to win the prize.  To be Man of the Year.  And being young, I envied these older men, who seemed to have it all together. Until I started working with their junior high and high school age kids.  And a much different man was revealed.  Scripture tells us to listen to both sides of an argument, for the first always seems right until the other side is heard.  Now hearing both, I saw the men as different, but also their kids too.  Much pressure was put on them to perform for the church, for their parents, to represent what the secular world thought a Christian should be, that they got confused.  I learned of how things were different at home than they appeared in public.  How saintly parents had drinking and anger problems at home, hidden from view.  How some kids were rebellious and on drugs, but putting on a show at church, sometimes the parents knowing it, sometimes in denial, sometimes missing it all together.  It was all about a physical presence, how they were seen in church, and for the man of the year award.  And getting to know the kids found out they had inherited the same fault of performance.  The church being their dyno, where the numbers didn’t represent the true power within them, but only what they were doing that day and time.  And when I had got to know one man of the year and his family, I know how a young Dorothy Gale must have felt seeing the Wizard behind the curtain, and I still think about that today.

The Bible refers to those in Christ as saints, not canonized, but standing out as different from the world because of Jesus Christ.  We shudder at being called a saint, or being referred to as holier than thou, but God sees it different.  As we should, but don’t.  When Paul introduces his letters as to the saints, he was and still is referring to people just like us, you and me.  We all have problems, battles, and temptations just like the unsaved.  Being a Christian doesn’t exempt you from them, but does give you power over them.  It is called wisdom, which comes via the spirit, only to those in Christ.  The word saint means distinct, holy, set apart, and living for God.  And our lives should reflect it.  We will have our ups and downs, get over it, but grace and peace are a constant in Christ.  No matter the circumstance, we can have God’s grace, it never changes, and his peace in the midst of a storm, when we need it most.  And often times when not seen.  Joy is not the absence of suffering, but the presence of God.  His light shines brighter in the darkest situations.  Two characteristics of Jesus we can have all the time, if we choose.  Power not found on a dyno, not measured in actions, but rather reflected in actions based on our hearts.  What we think we act, what we say we mean, and that defines who we are, in a dyno based world.  But God knows our hearts much better, and you may be man of the year, have more power based on a dyno run, but God sees the inner man.  Sadly so do others, if we are called saints, and to be saints, why don’t we live like saints?

Today your life will be run on the dyno, and it will be interesting to see what it shows.  On God’s dyno it is not by might, not by power, but by his spirit.  If love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, meekness, long suffering, and self control are in you, then it will show up on your dyno run.  The things of God, the fruit that describes how he is, and how he is within us.  But we all need some tuning, and he knows it, so has provided mercy when we screw up, the only way to get mercy.  And like a computer tunes an engine for maximum performance via input, we can live in the spirit the same way, forgiven, persevering, and showing the same grace to others.  Love is the true dyno test of life.  Not being man of the year.  Maybe a sign I saw years ago over a man’s desk explains it better, “THE TRUE MEASURE OF SUCCESS IS HOW YOUR KIDS DESCRIBE YOU TO THEIR FRIENDS.”  How does your life describe Jesus to your friends?  Your enemies?  What is different about you that would make you want to know Jesus? 

The dyno just records what it sees.  He who has been forgiven much forgives much.  Jesus forgives all our sins.  All. Isn’t that what we want revealed in our dyno test of life?  If you think it is tough winning the man of the year award, wait until you try to repeat the next year.  The competition only gets worse, the numbers grow.  Only Jesus knows the heart.  Get to know him, he just loves you as you are, he just doesn’t want to leave you that way.  Heaven is the award, given out daily via his spirit.  Brag on Jesus today by showing his love, on a dyno his power is off the chart.  And always there when we need it.  That’s meekness, power under control.  And you have bragging rights to what?

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

whaddya mean your wife don't ride?

Early Tuesday afternoon found us pulling into Oklahoma City at the bombing site.  A very somber and sobering place, our Torches Across America ride took us there again, and the media coverage was there to meet us.  I was being interviewed by a local news station, and when she was done, asked “can I speak to you and your wife?”  And so we met up, and she was excited about us riding, but also about Theresa riding with me.  She was a newly wed and her husband rode, and before marriage got counseling.  Where the counselor encouraged them to ride together, as it would make their marriage stronger.  “Do you?”  I asked, and she broke out into a huge smile, “yes, wonderfully so, and she was right, we are having the best time riding together, and it keeps us close.”  Any bets you never see their motorcycle parked in front of a psychiatrist’s office?  We need more marriage counselors like that!  And I can vouch for testimony, as from the first night Theresa and I met, from all the trips we have taken, and the ones planned, down to the weekend rides and rides just for lunch or to the beach, riding keeps us strong.  An unspoken element of the marriage vow, “to ride in good times and bad,” I wish it would be part of any bikers vows.  I offer our over 300,000 miles ridden together, and her 50,000+ on her own Bonneville with me as evidence, 39 years strong. So whaddya mean, your wife don’t ride?

Many times when riding, men will talk with her, and ask “can you talk to my wife about riding?”  The answer is always no, you talk to her.  Tell her the good times she is missing, and maybe a short ride is in order.  Think of why she doesn’t ride, would you sit on that fender cover you call a seat?  Maybe she isn’t interested in wheelies, or riding with a group of men.  Do you date alone or in a crowd?  Maybe helmet head deters her, until she meets up with a group of women who have it, and wear it as a badge of honor.  Perhaps you scared her once, and she never wanted to be scared again, do you ride your own ride, can you adapt it for her?  Start with short rides, let her pick out some riding clothes, attend a toy run or biker event, let her get introduced to riding as you were, assure her you are with her and not your buddies, we always hear the horror stories and the rumors, let her find out if riding together is for her, and you.  Maybe have her talk to other wives who ride, who are still feminine and ladylike, underneath all that leather beats the heart of a woman, remember?  It could come down to a simple thing, she doesn’t trust your riding.  Have you given her a reason to ride with you? 

How many woman have you ever scared off on your first date by thinking fear impressed them?  When really the wind in their face for the first time felt like 100, it always feels faster from the passenger seat.  Have you tried including them in your travel plans, many side roads mentioned by Theresa have turned into great finds.  Stop and drink a Coke, smell the flowers, take some pictures to show her friends, and when they cannot believe she is riding, inside she will see they are jealous, maybe even wishing their boyfriend or husband rode, or cared enough about them to ask them along.  Did you stop asking after the first no, do you even want them along?  With 10% of bike sales going to women, they play a big part in riding today, what are you missing by thinking only about your ride and not “our ride?”  For there is a romantic side to riding that cannot be explained in words.  It must be experienced.  You both don’t know what you are missing, whaddya mean your wife don’t ride? 

We read in Ecclesiastes the words of the wise, scripture, are like a goad, encouraging us to go where we might not otherwise go.  To paraphrase Captain Kirk, “to go boldly where no man has ever gone before,”  may be wisdom.  The words of the Bible can prod you along, through rejection and depression, through tough times and into good times, and give you a sense you are not alone.  It may be as simple as in the Lord’s Prayer, “not my will, but yours,”  asking but not receiving, talking but not listening.  It talks of scripture as a firmly embedded nail, when Jesus plants a scripture in your heart and you cannot let it go.  “These things too will pass,” and “let not your hearts be troubled,” two promises we are involved in.  Our choice to be happy or sad in the situation, for it too will pass.  Sometimes it involves letting go of old ways, and trying it God’s way.  When Jesus said “believe in God, then believe in me,” find comfort in it.  Knowing that scripture is that firmly embedded nail, like the ones that nailed him to the cross, his will was done that day, so that we may be saved.  Jesus hung in there in the tough times, and hangs with you in them too, do your actions tell others you know better, and pain and suffering are the better way?  Or have you tried it God’s way via his spirit? 

But we are also warned, that anything added to the words of he wise, scripture are damaging.  Maybe based on God’s wisdom, but not scriptural.  My words may mean something, but only when they are applied to God’s word by his spirit, they should cause you to seek Jesus himself, not as any new way to live.  The Bible needs no second versions, no rewrites, or religious dogma added.  It warns “of many books there is no end,” It is alright to reach out and search, but seek him first, then all other things will be added unto you.  Until we know that Jesus is the reason for our existence, all other books will only confuse us and lead us astray.  How many study books about the Bible, but not the Bible?  How many pastors advertise their book on their website?  Where is the ad for the Bible?  Where is the phone number, the email address to ask about what you have read?  God is available 24/7, he never sleeps, he never slumbers.  And when we read guided by his spirit, he gives insight, wisdom, and comfort to us in our times of need.  No other book can do that, none.  Whaddya mean you don’t trust your Bible?  These things shall follow them that believe, what do you see in your mirror?  Does looking back inspire you to look ahead?

Imagine if Adam and Eve rode, no chance for the devil to talk to her over the sound of a tuned exhaust.  Her husband would be right there with her, two can cover each other’s back, another reason Jesus sent the disciples out by twos.  So maybe riding together isn’t scriptural, but beneficial to a strong marriage.  And God wants your marriage relationship, as well as the relationship with him to be healthy.  To exercise it daily, to grow in him and with him.  Like any good marriage will when he is in it.  If your wife won’t ride with you, ask her why.  Then try to make her comfortable, the spirit is the great comforter, is your seat standing in the way of a great marriage?  Would you allow Jesus to sit on it?  Your riding, may be standing between you and your wife, or it may be the glue that cements it.  Whaddya mean your wife don’t ride?  You may be the problem...and the solution.

By the way, all the women I have ever ridden with who took a class to learn how to ride, had the riding mechanics down better than most men.  They know how to ride, to use their front brakes, to take good lines in corners.  Maybe you are afraid if she does, she will upstage you, and you might have to become a better rider.  Maybe if you put all the time into a ride together you put into Bible study, your marriage may grow.  But if you put all the time riding into God, I can assure you will grow.  When spirit led.  I rather be riding thinking about God, than sitting in church thinking about riding.  You can take Jesus with you, you know?  But  you have to ask him along, like you do your wife.  Maybe he is just waiting for the invite into your life and ride.  Until we meet him face to face, and we are led by his spirit, everything else will be of little value.  Riding more and enjoying it less....maybe you need a passenger along to share it with.  Reading more and enjoying it less, you need the spirit to guide you. 

It may not be your bike that needs the tune up, ask Jesus into your life, ask you wife along to ride.  And find like the newlyweds did, “oh wonderfully so, God is so right.”  Now, whaddya mean your wife don’t ride?

love with compassion,

Mike matthew25biekr.blogspot.com