Don't Ride the Brakes
My wife had to be away this weekend on short notice so she asked me to sub for her at her church. I said sure, after all, a pastor on leave-of-absence doesn’t often get the chance to proclaim “Thus says the Lord.” Anyway, she wanted me to tell a story she had told on one of her first Sundays there. It is from the opening paragraphs of The Disciple Making Church by Glenn McDonald.

He tells the story of the time he and his son rented some mountain bikes and went racing down this four-and-a-half-mile trail. All without pedaling, scared to death most of the way, hands squeezing the brakes all the way down. “I can’t lose control,” he kept saying to himself, “or I’ll launch myself over some hundred-foot precipice hoping they spell my name right on the memorial plaque.”

He kept getting past by people who were a lot less timid than he was. They were riding bikes exactly like his and were having no problems navigating the curves and bumps. In fact, they may even have been having a good time.

The difference he realized was that they had trust. They knew that the bikes they were riding were more than capable of handling the situation. So they let them. The others let go of the brakes. He didn’t.

Then he writes:

If the love of Jesus Christ has found a home within our hearts, then we are the carriers of an awesome power that is simply waiting to be unleashed. From all eternity God has chosen to grow his kingdom through us. And it’s unstoppable…. It is stronger than the force of gravity.

But somehow, instead of marveling at the ways that God’s life is capable of exceeding all our limitations, we have managed to find the brakes. We’re even willing to hurt ourselves- to hold ourselves back- instead of trusting that God wants to transform us into people who are just like Jesus of Nazareth, and to use our lips and our hands and our availability to produce other disciples.

What an illustration- and how sad it is that there is too much truth in it. Holding back. Being less than we can be. Not trusting that it is all about God. I will have a couple more quotes from the book in the next couple of days, but thought that would be enough to get us started this week.

So to end this, here's the Prayer of Confession that we used today at church. An appropriate one when you consider how we ride those brakes:

Spirit of holiness, we confess that we are a sinful people. In thought, word, and deed, we quench the fire of your love and dissipate the power of your presence. You long to restore us to the image of God, but we let it tranish as we nurse selfish attitudes. You nurture unity, but we sow discord. You come to make our bodies your temples, but we descrate them. We dishonor your good intentions for us. Forgive us, merciful Spirit. Burn away our impurities, and forge us into renewed and useful instruments in your service. Amen.

--Liturgy for Pentecost and Spiritual Renewal,
Moravian Book of Worship.