3 minute read
Looking Like A Biker Doesn't Make
My husband rode a motorcycle back in his 20’s (which was...more than a few years ago). Within the last five years, he has begun riding again. Eventually God gave me enough courage to climb up behind my husband and ride with him. Since those first days when I clung to my husband like a tick, I have learned to relax…a little. I have learned an amazing amount about being a passenger on a motorcycle, which God has used to teach me an amazing about riding with Him as well.
Having ridden with my husband for a few years now, I have been contemplating taking the test for a motorcycle learner’s permit. I’m not naive enough to think that I’ll be an expert biker. I simply wish to participate in breaking down some stereotypes that start with those loathsome words, “All bikers are…” or “All librarians are…”. In anticipation of my newest adventure, my husband purchased a small Suzuki. (I’m roughly the size of a healthy 10-year-old, so the Harley was out of the question.) Shortly after that, I ventured out into the yard one day for my first “lesson”.
I haven’t been out there since that first lesson.
It’s not that I can’t ride it…but I can’t ride it. What every experienced biker makes look so easy is truly quite complicated. The coordination, the memory, and the timing needed to keep a motorcycle upright and moving forward is a complex ballet that I have yet to learn. Add to that the innumerable differences in driving rules that you need to know in order to accomodate the smaller vehicle, and trust me, there should be a great deal more respect in our voices when we say “biker”.
I learned something important on the day of that first bike lesson. I can dress like a biker. I can talk like a biker. I can sit on the bike, put my hands on the controls, and my feet on the pedals. I can “look” like a biker. But looking like a biker doesn’t make me one.
There are people who grace the church pews every time the doors open. There are people who read their Bible religiously, pray regularly and give generously. There are people who know all the right words, sing all the right songs, dot every “i” and cross every “t” in “Christianity”…but looking like a Christian does not make you one.
Looking like a Christian and being one is just as different as dressing the part of a biker and actually riding a motorcycle.
One of the most important things I have learned about riding so far is that each trip we take holds the potential of being our last. Motorcycles are not very forgiving and offer little to no protection in accidents. Things can turn bad very quickly. If you’re not ready to meet your Maker, you shouldn’t ride. You just shouldn’t. You have no guarantee of your next breath. Each one is a gift from God. Do you know where you stand with Him?
If you don’t know where you stand with God, chances are good that you don’t have a relationship with Him. He wants that to change. The process itself is not hard. Do you realize that you’re not perfect? (Neither is any other human being on the planet, by the way.) Can you be honest enough to admit that you’ve made bad choices, done bad things? Can you admit that you regret them, that you’d truly like to change, but that the power to do so doesn’t reside within you? Do you realize there is no way you could ever be good enough, religious enough, or generous enough to earn a home in heaven?
Welcome to the human race. We are broken. We are messy. We need help.
And God sent it: His only Son. He sent Jesus, knowing that the only way He could save us was to allow His Son Jesus to die in our place, to pay the price for all our mistakes, all our bad choices. Jesus was the only One who could do it, because He didn’t make bad choices or mistakes. He was — and is — perfect. He took on Himself the consequences of our bad decisions, paid the price of death, and broke its power over us when He rose from the dead.
You are not reading this by accident or coincidence. This is God’s way of reaching out to you. YOU. He wants a relationship with you. Take a moment to examine your heart and determine what you believe about the only Person who could — and willingly and lovingly did — pay the price to make it possible for you to leave this earth knowing that your final destination was worth every struggle and trial that you have faced here. Is He your Savior? He wants to be. He died to prove it..
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.”
John 3:16 - 18 NLT
“If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Romans 10:9 CSB
