Breath of Fresh Air

Ride a bike 34 miles. Seems daunting. Now add 3 flat tires and a busted tread. Suddenly it seems like a "no good flat out impossible was supposed to be fun for our 5 year anniversary now it isn't why the heck did we do this?!?!?" spectacle.

But in the moments of no flat tires and beautiful scenery and husband R leaving me in his dust, my mind wandered away, thinking about how I could turn this into a blog post.

Marriage is like biking.

Or, marriage is like biking with a flat tire.

Or, marriage is like biking with a flat tire, having to stop 3 times to change it, crying, yelling and somehow by the GRACE of God finishing alive.

But all that's been played out. You've certainly read that blog post before.

So what did I learn then? Surely God didn't bring such a biking adventure just for us to dust it off and move on. Right?

The first time R's tire exploded went flat, we pulled of the trail and opened our quote unquote survival kits the bike rental place gave us.  We had a bike pump, luckily, but a hand pump, which I'm pretty sure I could have been more successful if I had just put my mouth to the dang tire and blew.  So thankfully a family with a full size bike pump stopped to help.  They were nice, albeit a little annoyed at having to slow down their trip, but they did us a huge favor by allowing us to blow up the tire in about 1/100th of the time it would have taken us with our other dinky little pump.

The second time R's tire committed suicide went flat was no less than 30 seconds after we repaired it the first time.  While inspecting the damage and mumbling a few not so very nice words,  another couple stopped to help. They knew terms about bike tires that sounded like a different language.  When asked if something was connected to the something that kept the other something from losing air I replied with "yes, but why don't you take a look just in case."  I mean who takes on biking 34 miles without knowing about the something being connected to the something?  Not us, definitely not us.  This couple was so incredibly helpful and generous.  They diagnosed the problem, patched the tire from the inside out, with their personal stash of tire patches, put air in the tire, and then wished us luck on our 14 miles to the half way point. We would absolutely have not been able to continue our trip had it not been for them.

Both families were nice, both stopped to help. So now, I could tell you the Good Samaritan story.  Rob and I definitely got passed by plenty of times with only a few stopping to help. But I'm sure you've heard that one too.

This goes deeper than that.

Most of us want to do the right thing.

But why?

Are you like the first family who stopped to help us? They knew it was the right thing to do so they did it.  But they certainly didn't hide the fact that they were inconvenienced. Yeah, ok, here's a pump, glad we could help, see ya.

Or are you like the second couple?  They too knew it was right to stop and help us.  But they went further.  They weren't going to just help, they were going to stay with us and work at fixing the problem until they knew we could make the rest of the trip.  They sacrificed they're own security (extra tire patches) to save us.  We may not have mattered to anyone else busily rushing down the trail, but we mattered to them.

Selfless.

Do you do the right thing out of obligation?  Or do you do the right thing because it actually matters to you?

This realization definitely convicted me.  I write encouraging emails and send cards and give toddling A high fives and help friends with dog sitting and pat husband R on the back and hand out money to the needy when I can.  Okay, great, good job, what, you want a cookie?   Am I doing these things because I'm simply avoiding my conscience keeping me awake at night or because I'm trying to live in light of eternity?

Eph 2:10 says "For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

We're his handiwork, he has prepared good things for us to do.  Let's recognize those good things, and do them not for the person in need, but for Christ Jesus.
I want to live like that.