No Coasting For Us!

And just when you thought I didn't have anything else to say about the tandem...

There was a time when I would pick up my feet and rest them on the bar while riding the tandem with Jorge.  He had no clue!  Yes, rude nosy bodies in my neighborhood would often yell mean things like, “Gorda, baja las patas!" (Loosely translated this means, “Fatso, lower your animal paws!) often accompanied by an obscene gesture. I would laugh and laugh and laugh at how upset this made Jorge because he had no idea that I was, in fact, coasting.

Then one day we went riding at night, and the illumination from the street lights cast the horrible truth: My feet were up on the bar, and the evidence was in the form of a shadow that Jorge could see, in of all places, right in front of him.

We both laughed so hard, and as Jorge explains it everything suddenly made sense. No! He wasn't developing some sort of sudden onset weakness or muscle atrophy. I was simply prone to resting whenever I felt like it leaving him to pick up the slack.

Is it fair for one person to do all the work? Is it fair to just sit back, relax, and let God handle it all?  You know – bless us, provide for us, protect us, heal us, infuse us with joy and peace, and then never so much as say a little thank You?

Not only is it not fair, it's also not biblical.

God encourages us over and over again to invite Him into our lives on a daily basis (ever heard of the daily bread?) so that we all can live our life to the full. When we fail to maintain a relationship with Him, we lose out on so much, and God loses too because He desires to spend time with His kids.

Acts 17:24-28 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything. Rather, He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man He made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from any one of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.'"

Everything belongs to God.  He doesn’t need anything.  Still, as the Giver of our breath, He desires that we reach out to Him.  And He’s not far away.    

Much the same way that tandem bike riding is a lot easier when we both pedal, so is life more of a blessing when we reach out to our heavenly Dad and ask Him to be part of our journey.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, You give us life and breath and everything else. Thank You. We reach out to You today because You are near and can be found. When we find You through prayer You bless us immeasurably more than if we never spent time with You.  No coasting through life for us! In Jesus' name, AMEN~