4 minute read
Bullwinkle Chronicles
The Bullwinkle
By: Bob Seymour
Chronicles
This month is when I look back at the things I’ve done, the places I’ve been and the people I’ve met in the last year and while doing it this year I felt led to try to encourage those who follow my journey on Facebook and here in Behind Barz Motorcycle Magazine, especially believers in Jesus, to be humble and to be kind to people. Every aspect of society has been stereotyped but only the biker community has been painted in a way that has deceived almost everyone outside of it into believing we are inherently evil and violent people but nothing could be further from the truth…
A few years ago I spent the night with a state trooper (I didn’t know he was in law enforcement at the time) who told me that he was glad that I accepted his invitation to spend the night because I had destroyed everything he had been told about who bikers are. I don’t believe that state troopers are the only ones who have been taught to distrust and fear anyone in leather jackets, patched up vests and tattoos but I do believe that stereotype can be destroyed by our actions.
It is up to those of us who wear the title of biker, especially bikers like myself who are Christians, to tear down the walls between us and society as a whole. The way to remove the barriers is for us to be humble in our understanding that those who fear us have been wrongly taught and it is our kindness to them that will change their perspective of us. Every non-believing biker I have ever met (except one 1%er) has been kind, hospitable and generous to me but I cannot say the same about every believing biker I’ve met… As a believer, whether a biker or not, our goal is to know God personally and to make Him known primarily through our actions and not so much through our words but sadly many believing bikers don’t understand that. Too often motorcycle ministries are little more than extensions of a particular denomination that is trying to increase its membership instead of properly introducing people to their Father and that must stop if we want to see an end to the stereotype of the church in the eyes of the biker community.
I didn’t mean to get into preaching but I have seen too many lives impacted in negative ways by the not so kind words and actions of believers who ride scooters but do not live up to the code true bikers live by. The biker code is simply to live with love, loyalty, honor and respect towards every biker (and cager) regardless of the make of the scooter they ride. Unlike the majority of church denominations that demand uniformity from those they consider their equals, all that matters to us is that they ride.
I said all that to try to encourage believers who ride and want to make a difference in the biker community to follow the example of a man in the Bible named Barnabus. The Bible says that “Barnabus was a kind man who was full of the Spirit and was bold in his faith and as a result many were added to the Kingdom…” and there is no doubt in my mind that those traits can and do change lives. There is another verse
Livin ' The Life 26 BehindBarz.com
ullwinkle Chronicles
of scripture that those who are in a motorcycle ministry need to understand too because I believe it is the reason the ministry I do and have done in the biker community has been so successful. Romans 2:4 says that it is the goodness of God that leads people to Him and to me that means that when we allow the love of God to flow through us to the people we meet it will open a door into their lives so that we can then share the gospel with them….in words this time.
Again, I didn’t mean to preach, I just want to encourage believing bikers to reexamine their approach to ministry and to rely on the love, goodness and kindness of the Spirit flowing through them to draw people to our God. It is those things flowing through us, not denominational laws and by-laws, that will destroy the stereotype of the Church that most of the biker community and society as a whole has accepted as true. One more thing many Christian’s have to get hold of is to stop being offended by the behavior and language of those outside the Church walls, we cannot expect them to be like-minded with us.
It is my prayer for 2023 that the riding season this year will not only be the safest yet, but that it will be the most fruitful for the Kingdom of God I’ve seen to date.
Bob Seymour 607-972-5047 bseymour75@gmail.com facebook.com/pvt1st These are some pictures of people that I have met and seen their lives impacted by my journey, every one of them holds a special spot in my heart and my life.
