Just this morning I was out for a bike ride when a woman who was passing me decides to blow her horn at me. I’m not talking about the “beep beep” horn blowing that simply says, “Hi, i’m here,” I’m talking about the “beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep” that says, “hey jerk, what the heck are you thinking, get off the road you idiot before you kill yourself, you’re slowing me down!”
While this happened to me this morning, this is not a isolated event. I have been honked at, swerved at, and cussed at. Bike riding can really bless you! What is crazy to me is what happens inside of me when that happens. Something in me goes mad and I begin to pedal faster (as if I’m going to catch them) and I begin to pray that they catch the next red light (so that I can pull up beside them and smash their window out with my water bottle and drag them out by their collar) oops, did I just type that??? Ok, so maybe I don’t carry it that far but I do want to very kindly explain to them that “I BELONG HERE!” We have signs all over our city that say, “share the road with bikes” however, some people missed that day in kindergarten where we all learned about sharing.
I write this because the same thing can happen in life. Too often we are minding our own business, trying to do the right thing, when somebody comes along and tries to intimidate us and tell us that we don’t belong here. Sometimes it is a person and sometimes it is the devil himself. “You don’t belong on this stage preaching!” “You don’t belong at this church!” “You don’t belong with these friends!” “You don’t belong in this relationship!” “You don’t belong _______________!”
When those moments happen all you have to do is the same thing that I do when I’m on my bike. When someone tells you that you don’t belong you simply point to the sign that says, “YES I DO!” Somebody went ahead of me and put signs all over this city telling me that I belong. We serve a God that has gone way ahead of us and has given us His Word to tell us that “WE BELONG!”
Don’t listen to the honking people!
Thanks Pastor Jeff for this blog…God blesses by providing us with the right things at the right time. Your words were delivered just the way I needed today! Thanks again!
Great post. Didn’t know you biked but now that just makes you cooler! I’ve followed you on Twitter for a while. I love it when I find out cool-Jesus-people are cyclists. Riding on the road is definitely challenging, especially when people and their cars are so aggressive. My husband has actually had a GUN pulled on him…. really?? Wow, talk about road rage!