I’d never heard this story until last week in church, our Pastor read it to us, and at that point in time, I knew that I just had to share it with you! It might not be ‘exactly’ the way I would have written it, but it seems to come from the same place where many of us either are at or have been, so I left the integrity of the story where the author, as I know it, meant it to be to reflect their story. So, sit back, and read the story… Oh, and, don’t forget to ‘Pedal’!
The Road of Life
At first, I saw God as my observer,
my judge,
keeping track of the things I did wrong,
so as to know whether I merited heaven or hell
when I die.
He was out there sort of like a president.
I recognized His picture when I saw it,
but I really didn’t know Him.
But later on
when I met Christ,
it seemed as though life
was rather like a bike ride,
but it was a tandem bike,
and I noticed that Christ
was in the back
helping me pedal.
I don’t know just when it was
that He suggested we change places,
but life has not been the same since.
When I had control,
I knew the way.
It was rather boring,
but predictable . . .
It was the shortest distance between two points.
But when He took the lead,
He knew delightful long cuts,
up mountains,
and through rocky places
at breakneck speeds,
it was all I could do to hang on!
Even though it looked like madness,
He said,
‘Pedal!’
I worried and was anxious
and asked,
‘Where are you taking me?’
He laughed and didn’t answer,
and I started to learn to trust.
I forgot my boring life
and entered into the adventure.
And when I’d say, ‘I’m scared,’
He’d lean back and touch my hand.
He took me to people with gifts that I needed,
gifts of healing,
acceptance
and joy.
They gave me gifts to take on my journey,
my Lord’s and mine.
And we were off again.
He said, ‘Give the gifts away;
they’re extra baggage, too much weight.’
So I did,
to the people we met,
and I found that in giving I received,
and still our burden was light.
I did not trust Him,
at first, in control of my life.
I thought He’d wreck it;
but He knows bike secrets,
knows how to make it bend to take sharp corners,
knows how to jump to clear high rocks,
knows how to fly to shorten scary passages.
And I am 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,
Jesus Christ.
And when I’m sure I just can’t do anymore,
He just smiles and says . . . ‘Pedal.’
— author unknown”
Excerpt from Holy Sweat (page 51) by Tim Hansel
Tim Hansel didn’t actually write the story but it was included in the book he wrote called Holy Sweat. If you’ve never heard of Tim Hansel, that’s ok, I hadn’t either up to this point but I took it upon myself to find out something about him. I googled him (and the story) and came up with a wealth of information. I’m not going to tell his story here today because I’m here to talk about Jesus taking control of our lives, but I will tell you that if you are anything like most of us, you have had some circumstances happen to you that you feel shouldn’t have because you don’t know what you’ve done to anger God and draw His wrath upon you. That isn’t always the reason that things happen to us.
Let me tell you something, friend, Tim Hansel was a prime example of being handed a truck full of lemons and making lemonade out of it, and then selling it! Most of us would do extremely well to just be able to make lemonade.
I’m sure Tim would tell you that when you feel like you can get no lower or any flatter on your back and you feel that, if there is a God, He has totally forgotten about you, to lift your eyes a little bit higher than the highest mountain that you face and see the God that created the mountains and created you, and see that He is ultimately in control and that, as you most likely have recently realized, you are totally out of control!
So, keep pedaling! Let God do the steering, and let Him have control of the things that you don’t have control over.
In the time that I have personally been disabled (that, now being about 18 years), and having been also slammed onto my back, flat, with no physical control of any part of my body from my mid-chest down to my toes, and then eventually, after having been told that I would likely never walk or move again, I was able to learn how to move the bottom half of my body, although I still don’t feel much there, then later to be diagnosed with an incurable, inoperable, terminal, Stage 4 Carcinoid Cancer, which thankfully is very slow growing and hasn’t advanced much in the last 10 years but always stands ready to threaten my life once again at a moment’s notice.
I knew God and was ‘saved’ before all of this happened to me, but He has a way of using those low points in our lives to wake us up and get our attention (if we are really paying attention to our circumstances) and let us know that He is still there and wants to lead us on to bigger and better things.
Even though I was never fully ‘healed’ of my infirmities, I have learned that God has allowed these things to happen to me so that I can be used of Him.
He has allowed me to be put into circumstances that, if these things had never happened to me, I would never have been able to run into people that He wanted me to be talking to about Him, or to be in places where I would be able to console someone in similar circumstances (in one way or another, but I doubt and hope that no one has the same situation as mine) and to listen to their stories. Sometimes they are in need of guidance that I can give them and sometimes I am the one in need of guidance from them. But either way, I am always blessed to be able to talk to those people and hopefully be a blessing to them.
I learned many years ago that regardless how I feel at the time or whatever condition/circumstances that I find myself in, there is always someone in a worse way than myself and, because of that, I have no right or reason to feel sorry for myself. It may not make all of my pain go away but it puts me in a state of mind where I am not concerned with my own infirmities but rather in tune with others and wanting/willing to help them, even if it is nothing more than just a prayer – which, possibly, might actually be the best ‘help’ that I could be to them because, much like them, I have no more control over their circumstances than I have of my own.
I have also learned that He keeps me in a position where I am always reliant on Him and I can’t make it without Him, whether it is through pain and my physical problems or through my finances. He always keeps me right on the line so that I am always looking to Him for support.
You have probably heard the saying, ‘barely able to keep my head above water?’ I picture someone in water deeper than they are tall and they have their head bent back so that their mouth and nose are barely able to gasp for air, but something else that I see in that picture is the person’s eyes. They are also above water, even though sometimes the water may splash over them and blind them for a second or two, they are above water and which way are they pointing?
They are pointing UP!
I wonder why that could be… maybe to be able to look in the direction of the Creator – the ONLY ONE that has any control to either drain some of the water from the ‘pool’ (for some of us almost all of the water drains out) or to build up the ground beneath us to give us a better toe-hold below them.
But either way, God, our Creator, the only One that can control the winds and the seas or make the hair on our head grow (if you happen to have any), but in any case, He even knows how many hairs you have on your head. He is the one that puts the wind under the wings of the birds of the air or the air in your lungs.
He is the ONLY ONE that has ANY control over your particular situation.
He may keep your head ‘barely above water’ so that He can use you to be the example to someone else to show them how you are able to breathe and ultimately look to God in your time of need and so that they can see how God actually meets your needs!
A dear friend of mine told me this week about how he had been feeling a bit down and he was grumbling to God and others about things going on in his life. He had looked on his phone (that is how he gets his reminders of what to read for his ‘time with God’, otherwise known as ‘devotions’) one morning and saw the link to his daily reading. As he opened it up the top of the page read: “QUIT WHINING!”
Friend, are you missing something in your life right now? Do you feel like someone is just walking all over you and you can’t take it anymore?
Read the story again!
Let Jesus take control of your life right now. If you don’t know how to do that, please let me know on my ‘Contact Page‘ and I will get back with you and we can chat about it, confidentially. But ultimately, friend, please talk to God about it. Turn your life’s controls over to Him and let Him drive your tandem bike on this wonderful ride we call ‘Life’.
If you feel like you want to read some more about this subject, I’ll leave you some more links at the bottom of this page to take a look at. Don’t just let this go though, friend! You can’t do it all on your own.
© Mark Davis 2017
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Written by: Mark Davis
Christians Are Us 