My fifteen-year-old son Logan got a chance to ride a motor bike the other week. He got on, knowing other people had already wrecked the bike, but of course that didn’t stop Logan. He loves going fast and can be rather unpredictable at times.
As he sat on the bike, his friend gave him one easy lesson, “This is the brake. This switch kills the motor, and twisting the right handle back makes you go.” Pretty easy, right?
Soon he was zipping down the old gravel road at perhaps twenty-five miles per hour. In balance, the bike was quite similar to a pedal bike.
After successfully avoiding a crash with a car, his confidence in his abilities started to grow. (Sometimes he has more confidence than he should.)
On his next turn, he hit a bump. He came off the bike, but his hands did not!
Half running, half dragging along behind the bike, he realized with horror that his right hand was twisting the throttle all the way back. He was accelerating as fast as that motor bike could, straight for a tree! Logan found that he could not steer away. He knew that if he applied both the brake and gas at the same time, he would ruin the motor.
He said, “The thought of letting go passed through my mind, but fear kept my hands locked on the handles.”
He slammed into the tree.
Logan lay on the ground with his world fuzzy for awhile. Thankfully, after the initial pain, he discovered that he was not as badly hurt as he had thought at first.
By the next morning, God was speaking to his heart.
Conversations had come up that felt hurtful to Logan. God told him that he could let go of it, or he could keep his hands on the handlebars until he crashed into the tree.
Yes, if he let go, it would still hurt. But it would hurt even worse if he held on. It would end up hurting him spiritually!
Logan determined in his heart that he was going to let go. I realize that God is doing something. If Logan will follow Him, God will use everything that comes up to help him grow. God will prune, and snip, and make Logan usable in His kingdom. Yes, pruning hurts!
But if he will let go of the motor bike, God will work!
A friend of mine told me once, “Pain is never wasted!” I agree with her. It isn’t wasted as long as you let go of the bike and let God work.
Pull for the shore, sailor, pull for the shore!
Heed not the rolling waves but bend to the oar;
Safe in the lifeboat, sailor, cling to self no more!
Leave the poor, old stranded wreck, and pull for the shore.
- P. Bliss
🙏 Love this story/analogy. A lot to ponder there.
Thank you!
The enemy of our very soul paints a dismal picture of just what could happen if we “let go”.
You will be traveling the way called strait all by yourself. You can’t make that thing right. It will cause all kinds of problems. Just forget it.
But nay!!! I got to the place that if I had to go to heaven all by myself I was going. But eventually different family members began to get in. And nothing untoward happened when making things right. Have to “let go” and “let God” You can trust Jesus!!
What a wonderful place to get to… trusting God!
Love this story. Excellent post ❤️