naked bike riding...

Common sense is funny. Right about the time you think you have it all figured it in the realm of common sense, you realize what is "common" and what makes "sense" maybe isn't what God wants. You see most of my life so far has been scripted in many ways for me. My decisions are reactions to things that have already been predetermined. The life I was born into, "the early years of Jim", were largely set, sure I had decisions to make, and some seemed large at the time, but it all seems like prep work for where I stand to day. I went to highschool, then went to college, then started my "career", then started my family, because that is what I am "supposed" to do. Maybe I don't want to do what I am "supposed" to do anymore. Do you ever wonder if the american dream is the same as God's dream? Do you ever wonder when you take your last breath on this earth and the previous x number of years flashes through your eyes are you going to be satisfied with what you were "supposed" to do. What we are "supposed" to do for the most past involves safety and self-fullfillment. What God wants us to do involves faith and God-fullfillment. The irony of it all is that when we don't put our desires before God's, true contentment, purpose and impact are finally realized.


You see the pictures of that kid in red hair, yeah the naked one riding a barbie bike. He looks kind of silly, foolish, to us. The thing is he doesn't care, you might be distracted by his wardrobe malfunction and the color of the bike but Elijah is having the time of his life. A few months after he turned 3 the training wheels came off and he is doing something that most kids don't do until they are at least 5. He is riding with no training wheels, trying to "pop a wheelie", as he says. My hope is that what I do with the rest of my life, no matter how strange or contra-common sense it appears to the rest of the world will be amazing to God. That I will be able to laugh and enjoy the great things that God is doing with my family no matter how funny it looks to everyone else.

1 Corinthians 1:18-25 (New Living Translation)
The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. As the Scriptures say,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise
and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.”

So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.

But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.

Anyone want to go bike riding?