Stay Alert

Jason B. brought his Kawasaki Vulcan over yesterday afternoon so that I could take it for a ride and relieve some stress. It is an awesome bike and I was reminded how much I love motorcycles. There is just something about the power and speed and openness of riding a motorcycle that is so much fun. Needless to say, I had a great time yesterday evening as I explored new WV country roads on the motorcycle.

It was so great, but I was reacquainted with an interesting phenomenon about riding a motorcycle last night. I am not really used to riding and the potential acceleration and speed is crazy fast and you also have to watch other cars very closely. All this spells on thing when I am riding a motorcycle. I must stay alert! I can't ever let my guard down. I have to watch the road, pay attention to the sharpness of the upcoming curves, notice what gear I am in, keep a constant eye out for traffic, keep both hands on the handlebars, and many other things that I need to be aware of to stay safe on the motorcycle.

As I rode and thought about this concept while riding a motorcycle, I thought about how much more important it is to stay alert in life. God says to us in 1 Peter 5:8 that we are to stay alert because our enemy, the devil is prowling around looking for someone to gobble up. Yet on so many occasions, we get lazy in our lives and in our relationships with God. We let our guard down. We take our eyes off the road and begin to pay attention to other things that do not matter at all. Sometimes we completely forget what we are here for and pursue things totally opposed to God and His mission (it's called sin). I was so struck how often, we as Christians talk a good game, yet live our lives the opposite of alert.

The other day, I saw a guy pass a tractor trailer truck on a sport bike. He passed the truck doing a "wheelie" and probably doing 120 mph. I thought to myself, "That guy is not alert. He has gotten to used to riding on the motorcycle and he is probably going to die on it". I think we, as Christians, are a lot like that guy at times. We have gotten so used to this life and this earth that we have forgotten our real purpose and we have forgotten that Satan is lurking around every corner and is out for us. W must stay alert!

This is not our home and we must not get to comfortable and let Satan get the victory in our lives or in our churches. Stay alert! It would be terrible to wreck our lives because we weren't paying attention!