I like to ride my bicycle

One of the wonderful thing about living in an island nation is having a beach, no a number of beaches, on one’s doorstep.  The other day we went to Maraetai for a beach day and on the way we were passed by a gang of bikers; proper bikers with patches and everything.  Half of them were wearing shorts and tee shirts because they were on their way to the beach on their motorbikes.  Makes sense, cut out the middle man leather-wise, but ummm, what’s going to happen to you if you fall off your motorbike bro?

Lately we’ve been listening to some guys who tell us that we are not so smart.  Those bikers didn’t think when they hopped on their motorbikes for a cruise on a nice sunny day that they would fall off them (and we didn’t see an accident thank goodness).  So I guess they were thinking “what’s the point of wearing all the gear when I won’t need it?”  But the statistics of motorbike riders tell a very different story.  Motorbikes (in case you hadn’t heard) are seriously dangerous and unpredictable machines with a high accident rate.  I’m gonna hope those scary bikers never read this post and just put it out there that their decision to ride sans protective gear was maybe not so smart…

In the same way it can be easy for me (and perhaps for you) to wonder occasionally why I really need Jesus.  I read (or are told) God’s law and I think “Yip, sounds good – I can do that” and off I go thinking “Love your neighbour?  Let’s do this!” Until inevitably I hear a piece of juicy rumour that I can’t resist passing onto a friend, or I find myself thinking of ways to dismember my next door neighbour because he played loud dance music till 3am.  Slip of the wheel, slide, tumble, gravel on bare skin, FAIL.  

At this point I have two choices:  I could pick myself up, belittle my injuries (tell myself my sin wasn’t such a big deal) or I could realize I am not so smart after all.  Perhaps a spiritual ambulance would be pretty good right now.  Praise God that He does not leave us but seeks out those lying in a ditch, covered in blood, wondering how they got there and crying out for help, and rescues them.  And that is our spiritual condition, whether we realize it or not.  Looks like we need Jesus after all bro.