Look at Me!

Monday, 30 Jun 2003

Proverbs 4:25-27
Let your eyes look straight ahead,
fix your gaze directly before you.
Make level paths for your feet
and take only ways that are firm.
Do not swerve to the right or the left;
keep your foot from evil.
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I did it! I took a weekend motorcycling course and...passed!! Now, all I need do is take the written test at DMV and I will be official. The only question left is...can I really manage our GoldWing? It is one of the largest motorcycles on the road, weighing in at 900 pounds!

Why have I done this? Well, when we hit the road, we will have a Freightliner FL60 and a GoldWing as our vehicles. It's probably a good idea to know how to manage both, but I really think both were made for Jim and not for me! He is quite comfortable with them, since he is a big guy...I'm not so sure about me?! But, I'm giving it a go, as they say in England!

I never imagined in my life that I would ride a motorcycle, but lots of things happen in our lives that we would never imagine - and with each new adventure comes new knowledge, new challenges and new ways of seeing this world. I found out during my weekend course that the most important thing about maneuvering a motorcycle is to look up, look ahead and look where you want the bike to go, not where you are. If you look down, you will swerve off the path marked out, and you will fail the test!

Gee, that sounds familiar!

When I finished the course, I kept hearing the instructor's words over and over in my head:
"Look at me!"
"Look at me!"
"Look at me!"

Our instructors would stand in front of us and tell us with hand motions when to brake, when to turn, when to speed up or slow down and they would also shout to us as we rounded a corner, "Look at me!" They were experienced riders and they knew that if we were to complete a turn successfully, ride through a curve correctly and swerve through those cones without running over them, we should not look down at the yellow lines painted on the parking lot we were practicing in. By looking down, it would cause us to cross over the lines, miss the mark, and become frustrated with what we were doing. I don't understand how that works, but I knew that they were experienced, they were there to teach us, and if I could do one thing, I could look at them when they asked me to.

It felt wrong and it felt awkward, because we are so used to looking at where we are, not to where we are headed. It took a retraining of the mind to obey their commands. The inside of me would fight against what I thought I should do, as I tried to follow what they were teaching me to do. How much is life like that? So similar!

It seems most times that what God is instructing us to do is contrary to what makes the most sense. It seems lots of times that we are asked to leave our old thinking behind, and trust His new way of thinking..at least, new to us.

1 Samuel 16:7
"The Lord does not look at the things man looks at.
Man looks at the outward appearance, but
the Lord looks at the heart."
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Well, there's one example of how our thinking is different than His!

Matthew 26:41
"Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.
The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."
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And there's an example of how we will fall if our eyes are not on Him!

I didn't want to fall on my motorcycle. They loaned those of us taking the course small bikes. Mine was a 250 Suzuki. Nice little bike, but still heavy. Maybe 300 pounds. It would have been okay to drop it during the course. They would have been forgiving to those that did, because most of us were total beginners - never having been on a bike before.

BUT...during the testing, if we were to drop that bike, we were finished. The test was immediately stopped, and we would have had to come back another day to try it again!

The problem was, that during the testing there was no shouting and there were no hand motions to tell us when to slow down, or to speed up. We were on our own, trying to remember how to clutch and brake and look and turn all at the same time. Of course, to an experienced rider, this is simple stuff. To green horns like me, it took total concentration! And when it came time to make those turns or swerve through those cones, the old me wanted to take right over and look down!! I wanted to look at that next cone, not the one three spots down. I wanted to see where that line was in the turn and make sure I wasn't running over it. I had all I could do to "look straight ahead" and not "swerve to the right or to the left." And as far as "keeping my foot from evil," I touched...I put a foot down in a turn and that's a no-no! Points deducted for that one, thank you very much!!

"Look at me, look at me, look at me"...I tried to remember as I kept riding. Each time we stopped for further instructions about the next part of the test, we were required to remove our helmets so that no one could say they hadn't heard correctly. Each time we went back to our bikes and got ready for the next part of the test, the butterflies in my stomach would start in as I tried to convince myself that they were just dumb cones, and this was just a motorcycle...no big thing...but it was. It was a challenge and passing was the goal! No one mentioned praying, but you can be sure that I was!

Now, don't get me wrong, this is not brain surgery. This is not climbing Everest or dealing with tragedies in this life, but it got me thinking and thinking always gets me praying and praying leads me to what God is teaching me, and that usually leads me right here to all of you, sharing what this life holds each day and how God can be found in all circumstances when we are looking for Him.

He is saying "Look at Me" all through our day, and so many times we are not looking at Him. We are looking down, at the lines drawn, at the path we are on, at the obstacles, and not where He is leading us. He is asking us to trust Him, to stay focused on Him and to follow His ageless wisdom so we can pass this "test."
Life is a test.
It tries us in so many ways and can cause butterflies to flutter in the stomach even when it seems dumb, just like those orange cones.

In God's Word He beckons to us and calls us to keep our eyes on Him as in Hebrews 12:2 - "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith" - He is perfecting us. He is making our "ride" what it should be. He wants to help, if we will only look at Him! He is the expert, we are the novices.
We have not run this course before.
He designed it.
We don't know what's ahead.
He prepared it.
We cannot pass this test without Him, because He has all the answers we are needing.
Riding alone, we will look down and we will drop the "bike" and we will not finish what has been set before us - and we will forget that we are all in this life together...

One of the gals in our group did not finish the course. She will need to come back and complete it because during the testing, her bike went over. It was during a braking test and as she came to a stop, it simply fell to the right. She was not hurt, but I'm sure she was crushed on the inside, because we all were. You could hear the moans from fellow riders as we sat watching her bike go down. You could hear the "no's..." quietly groaned from those of us waiting our turn. We did not know each other well, we had only met on Friday night and this was Sunday, but we were in this together. We had learned this skill together and we looked forward to finishing strong as a unit. There were not many words spoken because most times we were in a classroom listening to instruction, or on our bikes riding, and yet we pulled for one another and cheered one another when we received our test scores at the end, happy to have passed!

All but one, and as she left the testing area, our hearts hurt for her. She had not completed what she had come to do, and we were sad for her.

All in this together, just as in life. We are the body called the church when we believe Jesus died for us. We are not in this alone, but together. Here to work together as a unit. Here to do what God has called us to do. As I've heard it said, some of us are a toe, some a finger, some an ear, some a leg, but none is more important than another. We are given gifts from the Spirit, and asked to use them for the Kingdom. Working together, with our focus on one aim, finishing this test well and entering eternity through Heavenly gates.

It saddens us when we see another look down, miss the turn and swerve away from the path God has because our focus has been lost - and the saddest is someone who has fallen completely and will not enter into Heavenly gates.

Proverbs 19:2
It is not good to have zeal without knowledge,
nor to be hasty and miss the way.
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It seemed everyone in this motorcycle class had zeal, but not many of us started with the knowledge needed to pass the test. We started out so simple, in fact, we sat in our seats in a classroom and pretended we were on a motorcycle as children would do. Then from there we went out and walked our motorcycles around while sitting on them, as children will do. From there we continued on to learn how to actually clutch and brake and change gears until the final day when we were asked to get them up to 20 miles an hour and when told...skid to a safe stop! You should have seen the looks on the faces when that was demonstrated for us! But, we followed our instructor and did as we were told, everyone completing this exercise safely because...we looked ahead. We kept our head up, didn't look down, and no one fell as a result.

Is life so dissimilar to this that we can't learn from it?
I think not!
I learned from it.
I've looked down and I've lost my way, and I've also looked up and found my way. Even when it feels awkward, and the world will tell us looking up is not the way to go, I believe it is. God is the One with all the knowledge...what do I know?
I know a hurting world with great disappointments. I know loss and pain, and I know that when I look down it gets very dark and I tend to fall very quickly! Sometimes life throws us off-balance and we want to look down so badly...but God says, "Look at Me...Look at Me...Look at Me!" Not in an arrogant way, not in a show-off sort of way, but in a way that says "I'm here to help you, if you will only look at Me. I want to lead you in the right direction. I want to keep you on the narrow path that will lead you home. I want to pass on the knowledge that I have to you, so that you can pass this test of life and join Me in the Kingdom of Heaven."

This last week, Jim and I had the most wonderful opportunity to spend some time on a houseboat with friends. We were up at beautiful Lake Shasta where the weather was beautiful, the lake was clear and the company was superb! As I sat on the top deck of this houseboat looking at the water and the trees and the snow-capped mountains far off in the distance, I could almost hear God saying, "Look at Me...Look at my care for you and my love for you and my provisions for you. Remember this when times are hard and days are difficult beyond belief. Remember all that I created for you to bring you comfort during those times when there seems to be no relief. Remember how you looked to Me and I helped you, and remember the promises I made to you - and as you look up at that starry night from your sleeping bag on the top deck, remember who created each one of those stars. Remember that I love you no matter what the circumstances seem to be in your life, and that I am here to help you if you will only choose to look at Me and not the lines that seem to have been drawn in your life."

Psalm 34:4-5
I sought the Lord, and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears.
Those who look to him are radiant;
their faces are never covered with shame.
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It seemed the lines had been drawn in my life and I could have been shut in by them. I could have been trapped in the maze of grief that wanted to overtake my life. It would have been easy to look down and never look up again...but "I sought the Lord, and he answered me."

God does not lie, He is not capable of lying. He is a God of truth, and He has promised to help us if we will only seek Him.

Deuteronomy 4:29
But if from there you seek the Lord your God,
you will find him if you look for him with all your
heart and with all your soul.
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Even when everything in us says, "But I've always done it this way, I've always looked down at the lines drawn and tried to stay inside the perimeters that way"...don't!!  We have been set free by Jesus Christ! He died to guide us safely home, and He cries out, "Look at Me!"  He knows the way to finish the race, He did it Himself. He went to the Cross when everything inside of Him wanted to let that cup pass Him on by. He cried out to his Father in Heaven for any other way, but there was only one way...His perfect sacrifice. If He had not kept His eyes on his Father in Heaven, He could not have walked to the Cross and allowed those nails to be driven into His hands and feet. And now He cries out:

"Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds?
Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself!
Luke 24:38-39
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He wanted the disciples to know that He lives!! He was crucified, but He is now the Risen Christ! We need fear no longer. We need not be troubled!  We can look at Him and be saved!!

Little did these motorcycle instructors know, but they were teaching me the Word of God. They were teaching me what it means to stay focused on the One who knows, the One who has the wisdom and the knowledge needed to pass any test in this life. Little did they know that I would not only leave their class with a paper saying I can "ride," but I also left with a clearer understanding of what it means to stay focused in this life when the way seems too difficult and I am tempted to look down instead of up ahead to where God is taking me!

Thank you Lord for teaching me your lessons in ways I would never have imagined.
Thank you for taking me through the course of this life with You as my Instructor.
Thank you for providing the wonders of this world to look at when it seems You are lost to me.
And thank you for the example Jesus set when He looked to You and followed You to the cross, so that we can keep looking at You and find our freedom!

Living in His peace and joy,
Diane