“I loved the one you wrote years ago about the bike ride,” my wife said as she took a sip of our Sunday evening ritual cocktail and then ran a stitch through the needlepoint pattern she has been working on for months. “It was one of my favorites. You ought to tell it again.”
“Bike ride?” I responded. “What bike ride?”
I’m not sure how our conversation got around to it. As it is among comfortable companions, our chats can amble about seemingly aimlessly in the dark and then suddenly stumble over something profound hidden among our passing words.
“You remember, it was about your Faith being like a bike ride,” she said. “You should find it and resurrect it. Perhaps, the time is right for us to be reminded of its message again.”
So, never doubting Stephanie’s seismic capability to inspire me, I found myself on Monday perusing my past posts in search of her elusive story. With literally hundreds of archived Inspirations, finding this one could be daunting I thought, but it appeared so quickly that I almost felt guided. After reading it again, I think I was.
I originally posted it on April 21, 2011. It was just before Easter, and I was getting ready to leave the country on a two-week Salvation Army mission trip with 11 other men. Our destination was Debrecen, Hungary. The two main projects that we would be working on was to put a new roof on the home of a local resident and to build a pavilion to facilitate the feeding and clothing of locals in need.
One other “assignment” that was asked of each of us was to give a 5–7-minute testimony of our faith. That task, coupled with it being Holy Week, had been challenging my thoughts all week. As such, I chose faith as the Inspiration topic of that week. In so doing, I did not wish to portray myself as being worthy of being called faithful. I was, and remain, no authority on the matter. There have been numerous times in my life when I have failed in my faithfulness both on a human and spiritual level. Most often, I must confess, these were caused by my sins of pride, greed, or selfishness. I realize now that these were not times that I did not have faith, rather I betrayed my faith. That is what sin is-a betrayal of faith.
Anyone who denies that they have faith or that faith exists at all is being dishonest. If there were no faith none of us could live in this world. There would be nothing but chaos. We sleep at night because we have faith that we will wake in the morning. We eat food and drink water because we have faith that neither will poison us. We drive a car or get on planes because we have faith that we will arrive at our desired destination. None of these outcomes are absolute. If fact, nothing is absolute without faith. Faith creates within us courage, hope, confidence, calmness, and an assuring trust. The cynic might argue against spiritual faith, but he or she who argues that faith in any form does not exist or is useless is either a liar or a fool, perhaps both.
For most of my life I fought to keep my spiritual faith subdued. I didn’t deny God. I ignored Him. I was too busy attending to myself to attend to Him. I convinced myself that by the power of my own attributes I could achieve all that I needed and wanted. Amazingly, God cooperated. He allowed me great victories and accomplishments without asking or demanding any recognition or credit. God is not only all-loving, but He is also patient and forgiving.
Power is a heady drug for humans. To acknowledge God’s role in one’s life through faith necessarily involves ceding power to Him. That is something that I was not willing to do.
As I matured and through the intercession of several influential people I encountered in my journey, namely my mother, my wife, and my son, I began to realize that, while power and success in life offer immense pleasure, fulfillment in life demands faith in God. As your faith strengthens, your need to have power and control diminishes proportionately. And, rather than feeling weakened, to your great delight and benefit, you begin to become quite powerful and able to face life’s obstacles in a much more effective way. Faith makes all things possible and bearable, but not necessarily easy.
My faith struggles are far from over. In fact, in many ways they are just beginning. God knows that. He is patient.
That was and is my testimony.
I then shared a story that speaks much to me about my faith journey. It is called The Bike Ride.
At first, I saw God as an observer, like my judge, keeping track of things I did wrong.
This way, God would know whether I merited heaven or hell when I died.
He was always out there, sort of like the President.
I recognized His picture when I saw it, but I really didn’t know Him at all.
But later on, when I recognized my higher power better,
it seemed as though life was rather like a bike ride, on a tandem bike,
and I noticed God was in the back helping me pedal.
I don’t know when it was that He suggested we change places, but life has not been the same since…
When I had control, I thought I knew the way. It was always the shortest distance between two points.
But when He took the lead, He knew delightful cuts, up mountains, and through rocky places and at breakneck speeds; it was all I could do to hang on!
Even though it looked like madness, He kept saying, “Pedal, pedal!”
I worried and became anxious, asking, “Where are You taking me?”
He just laughed and didn’t answer, and I found myself starting to trust Him more and more,
because when I’d say, “I’m scared,” He’d lean back and touch my hand.
I did not trust Him at first, in control of my life. I thought He’d wreck it.
But He knew bike secrets, knew how to make it bend and take sharp corners, jump to clear places filled with rocks, fly through shorten scary passages.
And I’m learning to shut up and pedal in the strangest places,
and I’m beginning to enjoy the view and the cool breeze on my face with my delightful constant companion, God.
And when I’m sure I can’t go on anymore, He just smiles and says, “Pedal…”
Faith enables persons to be persons because it lets God be God – Carter Lindberg
Have an AWE-full weekend!
William “Bill” Bacque