Being

 June 25, 2022

I don’t generally like bike “rides.” Riding a motorcycle to no particular destination for no particular reason seems to me like a waste of time and gas. Doing this with other bikers is somewhat of an oxymoron. Unless you have Bluetooth helmets, you can’t talk to anyone while riding—hardly a team sport.

Panama UM Church had a “blessing of the bikes” this morning. The ride was preceded by a devotional in which pastor Steve Taylor encouraged us to enjoy the countryside and use the time for prayer. I have to admit, the countryside around Panama is extraordinarily beautiful with roads winding through its rolling hills of Amish farmland. One would have to be blind not to give thanks for such beauty, in which case, one ought not be driving a motorcycle.

I’ve often wondered how people are able to spend entire weekends on their boats, riding their motorcycles, going camping, or just sitting around. Don’t these people have things to do? Don’t they have lawns to mow, gardens to tend, jobs and to-do lists? But as I was riding this morning, enjoying the ever-changing scenery, I remembered God’s command to observe a Sabbath each week; to take time to pull back from work in order to recalibrate and remember to live. There are always things to be done, and it’s easy to get caught in the trap of “the list.” When we do so, we end up measuring life by what we do rather than by who we are. 

God measures on the “to be” scale, not the “to do” scale, and we all would benefit from focusing more on who we are, or ought to be than on what we do. There will always be more to do, but without stepping back to look around, to look up and give thanks, we are in danger of becoming empty shells devoid of our humanity, unable to recognize divinity. That would be a sad state, indeed. Today, I rode. Instead of doing, I simply rode, and prayed with thanksgiving for the wonder that surrounded me and the wonder of Christ within me and I in him, as Jesus said in John 15:4–“Abide in Me, and I in you.”