Living in God's Light

My coach was shouting instructions to me as I sat frozen on my motorcycle and unable to make the turn. “Look at me!” he shouted. “Raise your head and look at me!” Those instructions sound easy until you weigh in the fact that my coach was standing behind me on the left side of the track. I was approaching the turn on the track. My eyes were fixed on the track directly in front of me, and I could not maneuver the turn. Now my coach was telling me to look backward in the direction where he was standing.

Though near panic, I remembered an earlier lesson: When you get into trouble, pull to the side of the track and your coach will come to you. I slowed down my motorcycle and coasted to the side of the track.

As promised, my coach came quickly to my aid and encouraged me with more insight. “You must look in the direction that you want to go if you want to get there,” he said. “If you look at the road right in front of you, you won’t be able to maneuver the turns. Look in the direction that you want to go and lean into it. Your bike will follow you. Look through your path of direction to where you want to go. Slow, look, press, roll.”

Afraid, but determined, I pulled my motorcycle back onto the track. This time as I approached the turn, I looked past my fear to hear my instructor’s voice. Clenching the handle grips a little tighter, I turned my head to look at my instructor who was standing behind me in the same place as before and who was again shouting for me to look at him. To my amazement, as I followed his instructions, my body naturally leaned into his direction. Just as he had promised, as I leaned, my motorcycle followed, and I successfully made the turn.

I learned many things in that motorcycle training course, and they all came down to the common theme of perseverance and finishing the race. If we are going to fight the good fight, go from believer to disciple, and grow toward Christlike maturity, we must learn to persevere so that we can finish our race and receive the prize set before us. What I learned in this course can easily be applied to our spiritual lives, family and other relationships, and our working lives.

I was fifty-three years old and wondering why on earth God had led me to take a course to add motorcycle certification to my driver’s license. As is many of our lessons in God’s classroom, His reason had nothing to do with me knowing how to ride a motorcycle. Learning how to ride a motorcycle was simply the means by which God would teach me about perseverance, endurance, temptation, and finishing the race.

To persevere and finish, we must know our limitations and stay within those boundaries. In our spiritual lives this can be summed up in one verse of scripture,

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:13

This verse tells us that we have no limitations if we are in Christ and are acting in accordance to His calling. The task at hand may be hard, but Christ will give us strength to accomplish that to which He has called us. That last part is key. We must be sure that God has called us to the task we are undertaking.

Many of us are content to sit back and pray and hope that God Himself will miraculously do that of which we are praying. But, many times, God wants to use us in answer to our own prayer. He wants us to act. The scripture says it is “I” who can do all things through Christ. I can. God wants me to act.

God could have sent an angel to lead the Israelites to the Red Sea, but He wanted Moses to do it. When they came to the Red Sea, God could have simply parted it on His own. But, He chose to have Moses take action by lifting up his rod and stretching out his hand over the sea.

And the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.” Exodus 14:15-16

Just as I learned on the motorcycle track, as we cross our own Red Seas, we must remember to keep our eyes on our coach. A former pastor and friend of mine, Russell Clemons, once said to me, “Keep your eyes on Christ for man will fail you.” These words have taken me through many difficult situations.

We must keep our eyes on Christ and follow only Him. Leaders must be careful to teach those they lead to look beyond themselves to Christ. Parents must do the same with their children. Our goal should be to lead in such a way that people see through us and straight to God.

Often we find ourselves confused, doubting, frustrated, and wanting to quit. We don’t know which way to turn, and we become frozen as we hold on for dear life, and all the while it seems we are heading over the cliff to crash and burn. When we find ourselves in this situation we must simply pull to the side and wait for our Coach to come to us. God is faithful and gives us Holy Spirit as our coach to help us along our way. We simply must stop and call to Him.

Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.

Jeremiah 33:3