Trail 90 with No Light
Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.
Psalms 119:105 NLT
I knew every inch of this place, after all, I grew up here. It was the place of adventure, rebellion, friendships, stealing stuff from the snack shop, and sneaking around. It was also the place of profound relationships, where I fell in love and raised a family. It was a place of forgiveness and opportunity. It is where God met me head on with His radical love and changed the course of my life.
Warm Beach Camp. That’s the place where this happened when everything was green grass, forest, dirt roads graveled paths and a few buildings.
I had a Red Honda Trail 90. It had a modified muffler (A VW extractor, to be exact). It sounded big and bad, shooting flames out the tailpipe anytime going downhill with compression regulating your speed. Many a person turned to the roaring sound only to be bewildered, as it was just a red trail 90.
There was one more quality about this bike, it did not have a working headlight. I didn’t really care, I was young, “Eyes of an eagle and reflexes like a cat” (Ok, only in my dreams). I felt invincible. It didn’t matter how dark it was, I knew every inch of this place, and I would ride with complete confidence in where I was going.
Then there was that night. It was dark. I was riding up from my house (just above the horse stables) heading up hill, cutting across trails, roads, and lawns on the quickest route to the other side of the camp on the far side of Cedar Lodge. Doing 15-20 MPH in the black of night. All was good…
WHAM!!! My Trail 90 just ran into something hard with force. It about pitched me off, but I managed to stay on and go over the object of hard impact. Scared me to death! With my heart in my throat, I stopped the bike, walked back in the dark to see what happened. Who put that Log there?!!!
Unknown to me, earlier that week Warm Beach Camp had installed a series of boundary and parking logs (Lincoln log style, state park style) to help provide better definition of where vehicles were and were not supposed to go. Wow were they effective!!! The Trail 90 forks were bent (not the first or the last time) , and I, obviously, needed a headlight.
Reflection
As a follower of Jesus, we can sometimes become so familiar with aspects of our faith that we become confident in our own abilities beyond what is wise. (Riding around on a trail 90 at night without a headlight at 15-20 mph….Brilliant stupidity!!!) We take shortcuts. Our gear isn’t in good condition. We are not paying attention to the changes going on around us. WHAM!!! It happens. We are caught by surprise, and it has a real impact on our lives.
One of the areas often neglected is taking in God’s word as light and guidance for our lives.
Encouragement
Fix your headlight!!! Get into God’s word and let it show you where to go and how to live. Quit running around your life overconfident in your own understanding of things. Recognize that there are changes going on all the time that require continual illumination and guidance that comes best from God’s word.
Prayer
Father God, thank You for Your word. I am sorry for the times where I have taken for granted my need for Your word. I pray that You will help me in keeping Your word before me, and those who travel life with me. In the dark of night, we need a good headlight.
In Jesus name, Amen