S5 E34 - You've Got To Keep Pedaling

I'm teaching my oldest daughter to ride a bike, and it is a lot harder than she expected. She keeps forgetting to pedal, so she stops moving forward, and that's when she tips over and falls. 

As Christians, our walk with Christ is much harder than many anticipate. But with God, all things are possible - we just have to keep moving forward. When we stop growing is when we will fall - we've got to remember to keep pressing on. 

#SetYourMindAbovePodcast

Transcript

What if I told you that God could be seen in the most ordinary things every day? 

What if I told you that every day, ordinary events could teach us extraordinary eternal truths? Would you believe me? 

 Welcome back to season 5 of the Set Your Mind Above Podcast! My name is BJ Sipe, and I am a Christian, a preacher, a husband, and a father. And I’m excited to share a few moments together with you learning some important lessons from the simplest things. Let’s grow together! 

A while ago not long after her seventh birthday, Ava was able to get her very first “big girl” bike without any training wheels. It’s everything she had hoped for – it’s pink and purple, and all her size! At the same time she got her bike, however, she also got new roller-skates – so that has been the highlight of what she has wanted to use and practice with around the garage and the yard. But recently, she’s really been wanting to ride her bike. The problem is, we’ve had a lot of bad weather as of late, so learning how to ride a bike has not been in the cards with all the rain and cold weather. But this week, we finally got a break before the snow comes next week – and it was 66 degrees and blue skies as far as they eye can see. So, I made sure to set aside some time to take Ava down to the bottom of our subdivision where it is flat and has a few cul-de-sacs for her to finally try out this new bike. She was so excited, she grabbed her helmet and her pads and wore the biggest smile I’ve seen in quite some time. The idea of riding a bike was so exciting, liberating, and fun! She couldn’t wait to feel the wind in her face and be zooming all across the neighborhood in no time. Well…it didn’t quite go exactly how she thought. 

We got her bike ready and her ready, she mounted it and as all dads teaching their kids to ride a bike do, I grabbed a hold of the back of her seat and ran/pushed behind her while she started off. Within less than a second, CRASH the bike tipped over as she caught herself from falling with it. “What happened?” she asked me. “Well, sweetie,” I replied, “You forgot to pedal! When you stop pedaling, you stop moving forward, and that’s when you fall.” She got back on and tried again. And again. And again. And again. No matter how many times she tried, within just a few feet she would forget to move her feet, stop pedaling, and fall to one side or the other. Before too long, we had streams of tears coming down each side of her face. “Dad,” she cried, “this is way harder than I thought it was going to be.” I hugged her tight and kept encouraging her to be patient, and that it would take time, but that she could do it! But once she finally got it, she would be off to the races. After a small victory of riding about 5 feet without crashing, we decided to call it a day and return to it again soon. She’s just got to remember to keep pedaling. 

There are so many spiritual analogies to learning how to ride a bike in general, but teaching Ava brought a couple of things to mind that I wanted to share with us today. For starters, just like learning to a bike for the first time, learning to walk by faith is much harder than people initially expect. True discipleship is not easy, comfortable, or a “cake walk” by any means. Jesus would teach in Matthew 7:13-14, ““Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it. How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.” Jesus truly is the way, but that way is not easy. For Jesus to say something is going to be difficult, we’d best believe that he means it. This is why Jesus would encourage those who want to become disciples to “count the cost” in Luke 14:25-35. In this section of text, Jesus addresses all the things one must be willing to set aside in order to follow Jesus – family, possessions, even one’s own life. In other words: everything. We must be willing to understand that the cost of discipleship is being willing to lay down everything at the foot of the cross. That’s not easy – but with God, all things are possible. We don’t have to do it alone. Just as I ran behind my daughter and never left her alone as she started to learn to ride, the Lord is with us as we learn to walk with him. 

The second thing that we want to draw our attention to with our walk of faith is to keep moving forward. Growth is paramount to our faith, specifically to the health and maturity of our faith. We have to keep pedaling, keep growing, and keep moving forward. We read in Hebrews 6:1, “Therefore, let us leave the elementary teaching about Christ and go on to maturity,” and similarly in 2 Corinthians 13:11, “Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice. Become mature, be encouraged, be of the same mind, be at peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.” Just as it is natural for a child to grow and mature given the right nourishment and environment, so it is natural for the Christian to grow and mature given the same things. Paul uses the term to “press on” – which is exactly what we are called to do: press on, keep pedaling, keep moving forward. Why is this so important? Because when we stop pedaling, when we stop growing, that is when we are going to fall. 

We read in 2 Peter 1:5-10, “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins. Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things you will never stumble.” Notice the language Peter uses here – we are to continue to grow in all of these qualities – our faith, our love, our knowledge, etc. It is when we continue to grow and move forward that we will bear fruit for God. However, when we are not growing, we become unproductive and unfruitful. Not only this, but that is when we stumble – having forgotten our former cleansing from sin, remaining stagnant and unmotivated in our faith. If you don’t want to fall, you have to remember to keep pedaling and keep moving forward in faith. 

My friends, we are all at different points in our walks of faith. Some of you have been riding this bike comfortably for years, so to speak. Some of you maybe still have some training wheels on as you are brand new Christians. But in either case, my prayer is that you don’t give up. It’s going to be hard, it’s going to be difficult, and as imperfect people there will be times that we make mistakes and we fall. Get back up and start moving forward again. So long as we’re willing to get up and try again, our Father will always be there to help us every step of the way. 

This has been the Set Your Mind Above Podcast, season 5 episode 34 – and I’m so thankful that we had this time to grow together! A new episode is dropped each Friday, so be sure to tune in next week.  Also, if you’re able to, go ahead and like and subscribe to the podcast, give us a good rating or most importantly share it with someone else – it would help to reach others that I never could alone.  And more than anything, always remember the following: know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each and every day set our minds above.