I'm reflecting on the year 2012, how eventful it has been. The year began with my father in the hospital in Augusta, undergoing a triple heart bypass. He has recovered remarkably well in the months since, but the whole ordeal made me realize how the years have flown by. Both of my parents, though in good health, are aging, and that is hard for me to accept. Life is fragile, years are fleeting.
To further that point, my dear friend and brother in Christ, Aaron Smith, died in May after a short but painful struggle with cancer. Aaron had only become a believer in Christ a few years ago, and our old high school acquaintance had become a close friendship. His passing broke my heart, but I rest in the knowledge that I'll see him again.
My wife and I celebrated 25 years of marriage together this past summer, and I cannot imagine spending my life with anyone else but her. I would not change a single moment of our years together, except to have been an even better husband to her. She has been everything I could have asked for or imagined in a life soul mate.
I bought a second motorcycle in September, entering the world of sport bike riding, then promptly traded with a guy named Mike who wanted it. I got two bikes in the trade, a Triumph Sprint and a Kawasaki Vulcan 1500. I am working to get the Vulcan running again, and intend to sell it, starting my side income of flipping motorcycles.
I have begun to write more this past year, articles for publication in motorcycle and ministry magazines. I have four submitted to several national motorcycle periodicals, and two for a national children's ministry journal. I have been working on a book as well, with another in mind for down the road. I hope to parlay my love for and ability to write, into some side profit as well. We'll see where it all goes in the coming year.
So as we close 2012 and prepare for the new year, in spite of the uncertainty and gathering darkness in the world around us, I am hopeful, expectant. I'll turn 50 in the coming year, and hoping to make a coast-to-coast road trip with my childhood friend Lyle, also turning 50 this year. I'll turn 30 years of the ministry in 2013,  and God may open some new opportunities to serve Him as well. I don't know what the new year holds, but I know Who holds the new year. He has led me this far, has opened so many doors, and I will follow Him into 2013.

 

In light of the horror that took place last Friday up in Conn., I would like to share some thoughts from John Eldredge, author of “Wild at Heart”, who gave these insights-

Evil struck again.

And while I would prefer a solemn silence—the only good thing Job’s counselors offered him—so many unhelpful things are being said and suggested around the Newtown massacre I found myself compelled to write. Because the question of evil may be the greatest question the world faces today. How do we deal with evil? How do we prevent such tragedy?

It all depends on what you think is causing this.

I hope you will forgive my honesty, but I do not understand the shock. The grief I understand. The speechlessness, the staggering, profound sorrow, the overwhelming sense of violation—these I understand. We are reeling from yet another assault of darkness. But our shock reveals something else altogether, something even more dangerous than armed violence.

I am describing a naiveté about the world that Christians, at least, should not be toying with.

You would think that after a century which included the Holocaust, Stalin, the Khmer Rouge, and the rise of terrorism to name but a few, we would have been cured from our childish ideas about evil. You would think that after any one of the hundreds of atrocities of the past few years, we would have been cured. Rwanda, 9/11, human trafficking—what is it going to take?

I was heartened at first by the early words of Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy when he said, “Evil visited this community today.” That is exactly right; that is precisely what happened. But the clarity—he may have only been using a metaphor—was quickly lost in the subsequent media barrage. Our leaders are reacting to the Newtown massacre by calling for gun control; how unspeakably foolish. Now, this is not an essay on gun control; I am speaking to our understanding of our situation and the forces we are dealing with. But the cries for gun control reveal the naiveté—they are crying for the trees to be cut down while they ignore the wind.

It is this naiveté regarding evil that is the crisis of our age. And it is most dangerous.

For the Christian knows certain things about the world, things we must never ever lose hold of. We know from whence evil comes; we know what to do about it. We know—or we are supposed to know—that we live in a world at war; we are living in the midst of a very real and extremely brutal battle with the kingdom of darkness. While most Christians are still playing at happy little life (and angry at God for “allowing” terrible things to happen), the Scriptures continually warn us of a great evil power, who rules the world, whom we must contend with. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12). In other words, with the demonic.

We seem utterly devoted to avoiding the question of evil, to misdiagnosing it, completely committed to a childish view of the world. And our foolishness is proving very costly. For as GK Chesterton once wrote, “The great human heresy is that the trees move the wind.” By this he means the heresy that it is economics, race, poverty, a political party or doctrine that are the real causes of evil in the world; in this case, that it is the lack of gun control that causes evil in the world. Is the evil therefore located in the gun? Far more people are killed by automobile accidents each year in the U.S.—is the evil located in those vehicles?

How long will we continue to ignore the actual storm that tortures this world “by an invisible and violent witchcraft?”

We prevent all possibility of serious change when we hold childish views regarding evil, regarding the Great War in which we find ourselves. I suppose for the world the naiveté is understandable. For the Christian, it is inexcusable. We cannot toy with sociological, psychological or political explanations for the evil now ravaging the planet. Because we have answers.

There are answers both to the evil in the world, and the evil in the human heart. God moved long ago to deal with both, and triumphantly. What greater hope could possibly be spoken? This is what the world longs to know—"Why doesn't God do something?" God has acted; he has intervened, at the cost of his own Son’s life. There are answers, there are solutions, there is a way out. But we will not seek them while we take a four-year-old view of the world; while we blame the "trees" for the raging storm.

How differently would the church pray if we really believed we are at war with the kingdom of darkness? How differently would we live and act in this world?

That “difference,” my brothers and sisters, would make an enormous difference.

We have an enemy. He is bent on our destruction, on the destruction of God’s work in the world. On the destruction of our children.

But-

“They conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not love their lives in the face of death.” Revelation 12:11

1999 Triumph Sprint ST

Its been several weeks since the last post, and much has transpired.
Following up on the story last month of Mike, the older gentleman I met about the two motorcycles-
This story has progressed rapidly, in amazing ways. At first, Mike wanted $2K for Triumph (they go for $3K+ on the web), and $1K for Vulcan, but even then was willing to wiggle on prices, since neither had run in over a year. I told him I'd get back to him after Thanksgiving.
We talked on Monday of the next week, and he informed me he was taking his wife out of town to see her mother the first week of December. I asked if he would let me borrow the shop manual for the Triumph while he was gone, to see if I could figure out if there was anything else wrong with the bike, aside from needing a new battery. Mike said, "I'll do better than that. I'll let you take the bike to your house, so you can work on it yourself. If you get it running, I'll come off the price even more, to comp you for your time, effort, and money. If you can't get it running and want to call it all off, I'll comp you anyway." I jumped at the chance! Jack Butler, one of my riding buddies, brought his trailer, and we picked it up. Mike's wife, Donna, wanted him to follow us to my house, saying, "Sorry, but I'm not as trusting as Mike is!" Hoping to find an opening to maybe share my faith some with Mike, I said, "That is no problem at all! In fact, I hope you can trust preachers, because I'm one of them over at Hebron. So you'll be able to track me down at my home, or my church." As I handed them my card, they both lit up, and Mike declared, "What a blessing from God! I'm a Messianic Jew, gave my life to Christ over 20 years ago!" Wow! I was blown away. No doubt in my mind, ours had not been a chance meeting at that Red Box the week before.
We got the bike to my house, moved into my basement shop, and Mike offered to give me a ride back to the church. I obliged, thanked Jack, and hopped in Mike's truck. We talked family, careers, and Christ all the way back to Hebron. Pulling into the parking lot, Mike saw my red ZR7s sitting there, and asked to see it. He walked all around it, admiring the little ride, and asked to sit on it. "Sure, throw a over," I told him. He lit up again as he straddled it, saying, "Wow, its so light and well-balanced. And I can touch ground easy on it." He stepped off, stood there in thought for a moment, then asked, "Would you consider a trade? If you can get the Triumph running, I'd like to swap with you. On this bike, I think I might have a few more riding years in me." Surprised, I said, "Absolutely! I'd love that Triumph. I get her running, you got a deal." He said he'd bring a new battery by the church for me the next day, and we shook on it.
Sure enough, Thursday he met me with the battery. We stood and talked for about 30 minutes outside, then he declared, "I have a little revision to my proposal, if you are open to it. I'd still like to straight trade with you, and I'm willing to throw in the Vulcan 1500 too. So I'll give you both bikes for your ZR." I was stunned. Two bikes for one! Triumph for ZR, and basically the 1500 for free! Incredible. I nearly hugged the man. I told him, "Let me see what I can do with the Triumph while you are gone, and if all goes well, when you get back we'll see about closing the deal."
Well, to make a long story short, over the next two evenings, and half a Saturday with my dad's help, we got that Triumph running and tuned. In the meantime, I did some wrenching and cleaning on the ZR, so it would be ready for Mike. Upon his return, he met me at our house, and we went for a 30 minute ride- me on the Triumph, Mike on the ZR, so he could get a good feel for it. He had not ridden a motorcycle in a year and a half, so we said a prayer together, then took it easy out on some nice country roads I knew he'd enjoy. Upon returning, he stated, "I love it. I want it. Let's do this." We shook on it, agreeing to swap titles early the next week, and finalize everything.
So here I am on Sunday night, marvelling at God's hand in all of this. I've had a dream as of late to turn my love for motorcycling into a profit, by writing articles for motorcycle and Christian magazines, and "flipping" bikes on the side- finding ones like these, sitting idle in garages, needing just a little TLC to get them on the road again, buy them low, resell them for profit, and make new friends along the way. Just like Mike. And here we are, getting a like-new Triumph Sprint in a swap, a basically free Kawasaki Vulcan 1500 to work on then sell, and I already have four articles set to run in about five different magazines across the winter, and more I'll be submitting soon. God is at work in this, and no telling where it will all go. But I'm excited, and ready to follow Him.
More to come,