The Flying V

I started cycling not to long ago to keep in shape. A friend of mine asked me to join in on a Saturday group ride, which I wasn’t sure I’d be ready for. I had been Mountain Biking; however, the idea of riding 30 plus miles worried me. I didn’t feel that I’d be able to keep up with the group. Saturday came…my anxiety level was a little high, as had stated…I was a little worried about keeping up. We started the ride, and it wasn’t log before I discovered that I was barely pedaling. We had formed into a line and I began to understand that the man in front was pulling everyone else along…like the geese flying south for the winter in their well known “Flying V”. When the lead rider would get tiered, he would drop out and file back in line at the rear to get pulled along by the group and a new leader would take his place keeping the same pace. When we got done with the ride, I was shocked…I could of done another thirty miles.

A few days later, I figured I’d ride my bike to work. It was 18.7 miles and mostly flat. The weather was looking good with no real wind to speak of, so I thought I’d give it a shot. What I didn’t count on was how hard those 18.7 miles were going to be without the group. I made it to work, but my legs were spent, and I did it at about three quarters of the pace. WOW! Major difference!

The same can be said for our walk as Christians. There is this overwhelming dislike for Churches (Organized Religion, as some would call it) amongst people that call themselves believers. The number of unchurched Christians is staggering. But how are they really doing with their walk? Who is helping them stay accountable? And who is rejuvenating them when they get spiritually tired? And who helps them through the tough times when the devil tries to turn their lives upside-down? It’s said that a coal that falls far from the fire only burns half as long. Hmmm…..

After my experience with cycling…I’d much rather ride in a group...spiritually...then by my self anyday.

A Little More on Adoption

If you’ve ever thought about adoption of an older child, you need to consider the way we treat God and His adoption of us. When a child is introduced into your home, at first there might be a lot of, or an appearance of extreme joy from the child. There’s this fairy-tale vision of how things will be in a family, as if, they will get what ever their little heart desires…a dream world…a fantasy, that there’ll never be another problem. But as normality set’s in, the children take on a different type of behavior. We start to see the self centeredness, and start to get some rebellion, or maybe a better explanation, complacency to the house rules. They seem to loose interest in the family. Now, this is not about every child in an adoptive home, but simply some.

The same can be said about our adoption by God. When we first become Christians, we are so excited! We are beaming with Joy! Then as time goes on, we become complacent with or try to reinterpret God’s house rules, we become rebellious and fight change. We forget about the grace, God’s Grace that allowed us to be adopted in the first place. We forget that God did not owe us anything and we start treating God as if he does. God does not owe us anything, but he gives to us simply because he loves us, just as we give to our children out of love.

Rodney

Last night, my wonderful wife fixed me. I have this custom cyclocross bike that has no decals on it, so I thought it would be cool to order a custom made decal set to make it even more so an original. The decals that I ordered said, “INSANITY ELITE” for the bottom tube, and “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde” for the top tube, and Man, I thought this was going to be cool. After I told my wife what I ordered, she calmly looked at me and asked, “So, how does that forward the cause of Christ?” I stood there with my mouth open, but nothing could come out. She was right, it didn’t do anything for the cause of Christ, and it didn’t bare good witness. My decal set has been canceled and re-ordered to say, “Live4Christ” for the bottom tube and, “Jesus Freak” for the top tube.

We must always remember that what we do reflects back on Christ…and can either move forward or backward His cause. So, do you want to be a help or a hindrance to the cause of Christ?

His Will

We paint this picture in our minds. We get it all set-up in our heads, how everything is supposed to go…and then poof…everything is upside-down and all wrong, well, according to us. We get so wrapped-up in the idea that God is in control, but when He doesn’t do it the way we think it should be done, we get angry or just confused. We start asking, “Why, God?” and “Isn’t this what you wanted me to do?” But we forget, “In His way” and “In His time.” We forget that He has a plan, and though we might not understand it, it is His plan. We need to stay the course and stay faithful to God’s will, that is where we belong…in His will.