Beginning the Summer of 1987 I had been riding very little for several months. I had begun dating a young girl I knew from high school and we had decided on getting married in September of that year. With life beginning to have a brighter outlook, I was beginning to want to ride again. I had already qualified for the Amature Nationals on the 85 Husky in the Last Chance Qualifier at Muddy Creek raceway a few weeks earlier. It was during this time Julie and I made one of our first mutual decisions together and decided to purchase a new bike for me to ride. We made a trip together to Paris, TN, and brought home this 1987 Suzuki RM 250cc.
Having ridden Suzuki for years, the bike had a very familiar feel. The suspension was great, the bike turned very well, and was very comfortable to ride. The little engine was strong with lots of torque. All of this translated into going faster immediately with a boost of confidence. Once again riding was pure joy and I would go faster and ride better on this bike than I ever had before or would ever ride again. Things were changing locally in motocross and Julie and I began traveling further to race and to larger and more competitive tracks. As a result, I didn't win as often as I had in previous years, but I did go faster and ride better. The tracks were larger and more demanding along with a larger class of riders to compete with. It was very challenging and a lot of fun.
I would ride this bike for a few more years, the racing events getting further and further apart. I was transitioning from years of racing into a more family-oriented life. I know motocross is viewed as a family sport, it was just not the way we seemed to be heading. We kept motorcycles a part of our lives for a long time. We all had one, even our little ones. One even participated in a race on his Pee-Wee 50cc Yamaha. However, we were transitioning from the racing to just a trail riding event family. Just getting out together and riding as a family became our joy.
This affords an opportunity to look again at the scriptures. As a Christian during those difficult years of 85 & 86, I was driven to take a more serious look at my walk with the Lord than I had previously had a desire to do. As I mentioned in a previous post, I had found myself in the most depressing situation. Times like that generally makes us stop and cry "Help!"
In John Chapter 4, we find a woman who had been married 5 times, apparently having given up on marriage, she was now living with a man who was not her husband. She meets Jesus at the well and discovers Christ. If you were listening to most TV preachers today we would expect she would have a wonderful life from that time on as long as she followed Jesus. We are not told much about her life after that, but we can speculate on a few things. Following Christ does not fix things, it brings Grace and forgiveness and hope of the life to come. Sometimes things get better in our lives as a result, sometimes it's complicated even more.
This woman will now have to go home and tell the man with whom she is living they can no longer live as they are. That simply could not be if she continued to follow Christ. We don't know what hardships that would have brought upon her life or the emotional strain that would weigh upon her. Following Christ does not fix our problems, it gives us the Grace to live life as He would have us live it.
We have the idea today that we can just decide to follow Christ as if it is simply a changing of our minds to do better, something like a New Years' resolution. In John Chapter 3 Jesus told Nicodemus you must be born again. The Great Preacher George Whitfield cried, "You must be born again!" When asked by a young reporter why he always preached, "you must be born again" he replied, "because young man, you must be born again."
God doesn't fix our problems, He fixes our hearts, the Apostle Paul said we become new creatures in Christ. We become something else than what we were before, therefore, many of our problems simply go away as a result. However, because we become something else we do in reality think differently, live differently, and desire differently, therefore we take on a whole different set of problems.
2Ti 3:12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,
2Ti 3:13 while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
2Ti 3:14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it
2Ti 3:15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. (ESV)
God bless,
David
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