It takes a lot of faith for a five-year-old to ride a bicycle… especially when they learn sans training wheels. By now they’ve seen a lot of cyclists…. They’ve seen bicycles in action and know the device actually works. But will it prove reliable for them?
The young child straddles her bike and places her right foot it on the right pedal. The bike wobbles as she tries to keep it upright. “Wait,” shouts dad, and He rotates the right pedal upwards to a good push-off degree. “There! Now put your foot back on it.” This, the preschooler finds, is much more awkward… much more unstable. “Now, push off,” says dad.
Cautiously, the young child pushes the pedal forward. It rotates a half turn, her left foot drags slightly ahead, she loses balance and the bike topples.
“Waaa… It doesn’t work,” she cries.
“Sure it does,” says dad. “You’ve just got to push harder and keep peddling. Push right, left, right, left keep it going. And keep the front wheel straight!” Dad demonstrates on his big dad bike.
But it’s a big step to commit with more forceful abandon to an act of such knee scraping potential. “Here, I’ll run beside you,” announces dad. The young child steels herself, raises the right pedal to push-off position and glares down the threatening path ahead. Dad lightly cradles the handlebars and then she’s off…. The bike wobbles right, wobbles left, but steadys each time against the father’s following palms.
Her confidence builds… By mid-afternoon she’s sailing!
“Look at me, dad. I’m riding! I’m riding a bike!”
“Faith is not faith until faith is in motion.”
Just one of the lessons from our message yesterday from S.I.M. missionary and LBC elder, Don Longworth. As we and our retiring pastor Steve Ranni and his wife Denise look down uncertain and threatening paths ahead, our Father challenges us, push forward… trust… I am right beside you…
“Faith is not faith until faith is in motion.” Is your faith in motion? “At what point are you ‘on the edge’ for God?”
More tomorrow…
To hear Don Longworth’s full message, “Where is the God of Elijah,” go to the Lincoln Baptist Church website, and look under ‘Media’ for the May 26 message.
thebrokenrunner 