Theology Confused: Studying the plain text: 1973 Kawasaki 175cc

This is a 1973 Kawasaki 175cc, I had one of these around 1974 to 1975. It was the next ride in line after the 1972 Honda SL 100cc my Papa Bivens bought me. I remember the Big Feel it had as compared to the little 100cc Honda. It delivered much more power with the 175cc two-stroke engine than the little 4 stroke Honda did, which was a new thrill. However, I quickly discovered the Big Feel made it more difficult to ride. It was considerably heavier and the chassis was much wider, making it much harder to handle on trails and those old red clay gullies I had been riding. It was a lesson in the order of bigger is not always better, just enticing to the ego. Not being a quick learner, I purchased a Hooker header pipe that made it even wider and even less comfortable to sit on. I accomplished little more than making it louder.

What lesson can I learn from this little memory? I quickly discovered we all seem to have a natural tendency to become bored with everyday life. The old saying, “It always looks greener on the other side of the fence” has true meaning laced within it. Once you get over there you find little more satisfaction than you previously had. I changed bikes, however, in reality, I change very little in life. I only managed to make the things I was already doing more difficult. 

We can do this as Christians, as our church or congregation become commonplace to us, it is easy for us to be attracted to a bigger church or a church that appears to have some exciting things going on or any number of other reasons. We begin to imagine how much better it would be if we were there, being we are just bored with our little church as it is. How many of us have changed churches only to find little has changed, perhaps we only accomplished making life a bit more difficult. 

Change does come to us as Christians, but it need not come from emotional enticings. Change comes in our lives in the order of growth in our knowledge of God and His Providence, which moves us along His path to accomplish his purpose, not because the grass looks greener to us somewhere else. My eye for the moment became enticed by something other than the pure joy of riding. My desire for something bigger actually took a bit of the joy away. Beware of everything big and blue that comes your way in life, it may not be what you think it is. 