Andrew Parkin of 2014 D Squad learned to ride a bike while on the Race in Thailand, but for him it was about so much more than mere transportation.
Six and a half years ago, I’d just moved away from home, and was attending church on a fairly regular basis for the first time in my life. I had been a “Christian” for about 7 years, but then I heard a sermon that shook me to the core.
The pastor said that following Jesus is like riding a bike. We have to move constantly forward; there is no sitting still. If we refuse to move forward, we refuse to grow.
This hit me hard personally for two reasons: First, I realized I was not following Jesus. I was not growing. I was sitting still, stagnant. I was a self-righteous, judgmental, legalist who thought he was good with God because he was superficially “nice” to people and was really good at not saying swear words.
My life was not about Jesus, it was about looking “good.” It was all about me.
Secondly, I didn’t know how to ride a bike.
Fast forward to last month in Thailand. In order to go teach English at one of the children’s homes, to go play soccer with the kids, to get to our ministry contacts’ homes, or get anywhere really, I needed I had to do so via bicycle. This obviously posed a problem.
As the rest of the guys on my squad checked out their bikes from the shop, I quietly pulled aside one of my team leaders and told him, bracing myself for the expected: “Really?! You don’t know how to ride a bike?! Seriously?!“
But this time, it didn’t come. This response is just one of the reasons why I love each of these dudes on my squad so much.
For the first couple days after that, I rode on the back of other guys’ bikes, sitting on a rack intended for cargo, not full grown humans. Needless to say, it wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world. As the entire lower half of my body became increasingly sore, my motivation to learn how to ride a bike increased significantly each day.
Until the day I checked out a bike and learned via the trial-by-fire method: navigating the streets of Mae Sot, which are filled with cars, motorcycles, other bikes, and pedestrians.
The first couple days were filled with both terror and focus like I have never had in my life before. And, praise God, I got safely wherever I needed to go without a scratch on me, anyone, or anything else.
Something I’ve realized through this experience is that I am a lot more capable of doing things than I previously believed (something I’ve been told throughout the Race by my teammates, but it took last month to believe it for myself).
It’s never too late with God. If you don’t know him, God will wait patiently and lovingly for you to follow him, and show you how to do so, just like he did for me. And if you have given up on ever learning or doing certain things, God can show up there too. He cares about the small details of your life as well.
If you need proof, just ask the people of Mae Sot who watched this full grown white man with a big red beard almost run into their respective cars, houses, and selves, but now smile and wave back at him as he cruises easily past them every day, loving life.
Do you want to be stretched and challenged as your serve God in ministry? Click here to see how you can do that in 11 countries for 11 months.
