Patience
This Storm Will Pass
I was finishing up a day of teaching and noticed it was starting to drizzle. I turned off the computers, lights and headed out of the classroom, briefcase under one arm and helmet in the other. It was raining harder now, so I put the helmet on and put my cell phone in the case. By the time I made it to my motorcycle, it was coming down "mice and squirrels" (that's a step under "cats and dogs"). I dumped my case in the tail trunk and donned my rain suit. My shoes were already soaked. I wiped the water off the seat and swung a leg over. The 650 roared to life and I took off down the wet street. It was coming down harder still and I found a break in traffic to get under way. Usually motorists are accommodating to a motorcycle in the rain, I think they feel sorry for us. Little do they know it’s not that bad if you’re dressed right.
When I made it to open highway I accelerated to pass a truck and trailer and felt the rear wheel slipping on the newly slick asphalt. But the new tire grabbed quickly and soon I was in fourth gear and around the slower vehicle, on my way home. By the time I got out of Abita Springs and into Covington, the rain was slacking. A few more miles down the highway and the rain was gone, as if it had never existed. Oncoming cars did not have wipers or headlights on, unaware they were headed into rain. I had moved out from under the summer shower and into clearer skies.
Sometimes life is like that. Gathering clouds warn of a storm. It catches us by surprise and there is little we can do but go through it. If we're not careful we can give in to worry or fear. We get inconvenienced, drenched, and have to focus harder to avoid danger as we maneuver through hazardous conditions. We could stop and cry; we could go back to shelter; or we could lower our visor and head straight on through, using faith to guide us. Eventually the storm abates and we come through on the other side – safely, if we made the right decisions.
Whatever you are going through now, it will end. The storm is limited. You must make up your mind to get on the throttle and carefully make your way through the storm, passing dangers and staying up, allowing God to guide you. Yes, you will get wet, you will be uncomfortable, but eventually you will make it through to the other side. There will be a chance for you to dry out, take a break, reach your destination and see the sun again. If you trust God, you will make it. Keep going, don’t panic, don’t give in to fear, don’t crash. Just keep it up, between the lines and pointed in the right direction. This storm will pass.
“But now, this is what the Lord says – He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.’” (Isaiah 43:1, 2)
Roy Jenkins
August 25, 2006
As Green as the New Shoots of Spring
It was the winter of 1988. I had just graduated from dive school and had visions of high income, world travel and home-made respect. But I found myself working as a shop hand for Martech, a large diving company in Morgan City, Louisiana. I tried to get on as a dive tender, but there were plenty of tenders ahead of me. So I settled for working in the shop as an assistant to the maintenance mechanic to pay the bills. We re-built the dive compressors and other off-shore equipment divers used on the lay barges (laying pipelines).
My mechanical experience from wrenching my motocross bikes came in handy. I had already worked my way through dive school by making and breaking tow for a barge company on the river. (Lashing together those barges you see going down the Mississippi with steel cables) I already thought I was a pretty good deckhand the way I whipped my Buck knife out my homemade leather case like a gunslinger.
One day I was using a little gasoline motor to pump the oil out of a compressor. The motor was running so I didn’t hear the shop supervisor come up behind me. While I was leaning over to check the fitting, he used a three-foot long screwdriver to ground me out against the spark plug on the pump. The shock surprised me so much I jumped a foot off the ground. The shop hands that were watching roared with laughter. The grizzled old diver said something to me I’ll never forget, “Son you’re as green as the new shoots of spring.”
He was right. It took time to learn the dive business from the ground up. When I was finally called offshore I learned more, setting up and breaking down stations; pulling divers up and maintaining equipment. Washing out diver’s wet-suits didn’t fit into my dream. But I kept going out on jobs and when I was finally ready (after a couple years), I finally “broke out” as a diver.
I’ve seen something similar at the motocross track almost every race. A new rider invests in a motorcycle and gear. He practices a little and before his boots are broken in he thinks he’s ready to race. He signs up to race with a nervous smile. He goes out to practice leaving most of his energy on the track. When the gate drops, his inexperience shows. By the second turn most of the pack is gone. If he’s lucky he’ll find someone else at his skill level at the back of the pack to race with before he gets tired out. When he pulls off the track of his first moto, one of two things happens. He has accepted reality or he has an excuse. Usually it is a combination of both. He doesn’t become a real contender until he has learned some lessons that can only be learned in the heat of battle with plenty of race time.
It’s the same with our spiritual lives. At some point a person may decide to trust God with his life. He is excited about his new life. He has a new Bible, maybe a new church. He has new hope and new expectations, for himself and others. He sees some changes in himself and raises those expectations. If he’s not careful he can become critical of others who are not doing as well as him in some areas. Then a situation arises where he fails. Reality sets in. He suffers a disappointment. He’s not as spiritually strong as he thought. God is not as he thought. Doubt sets in. He’s not as far along as he thought.
Has this ever happened to you? It’s happened to me, more frequently than I’d like to admit. When this happens, God is forming His new life inside me. It takes time. It takes experience. Yes, it takes some failure to start getting it right. If we had perfect faith, it wouldn’t be so hard. But we’re human. So we are frail and mistake-prone. We go back and forth from thinking too highly of ourselves to feeling too lowly. God sends just the right dose of reality or encouragement, just when we NEED it (notice I didn’t say WANT it).
If you have messed up, don’t pile guilt on top of failure. You’re just growing in your faith. You’re learning to trust the living God, not religion. Real faith is birthed in pain. Before you can come to the new place of spiritual maturity, you must die to the old wrong ideas and habits. Before you can get in the end zone you must leave your comfort zone.
Be patient with yourself as your learn and grow. Rome wasn’t built in a day. This book was not written in six months; one devotion, line upon line, page upon page, all born through my own painful trial and error of 49 years. Life is too short to judge yourself too harshly. Let yourself grow. One day it will all be over. Until then, forgive yourself, lighten up and trust God.
Scripture for the Day: “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, how I wish I could be with you now...” (The Apostle Paul to the church he planted in Galatia, Galatians 4:19-20)
Quote for the Day: “Why stay we on earth except to grow?” (Robert Browning, Cleon)
(from "Racing Fuel for the Spirit" by Roy Jenkins)
Keep Your Head Up
When I am having a bad day and things aren’t going my way, I have a little saying: “Keep making good decisions.” It works. I just have to keep doing what is right, and my situation eventually improves. Saturday night, September 20, 2003 held two good examples of how “sticking with the plan” paid off for others.
The first example was the LSU tiger football team. They were hosting seventh-ranked Georgia at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge. We were listening to the game during practice at the race in Gonzales. LSU was having trouble moving the ball in the first half. They failed to get past Georgia’s 46 yard-line until the final five minutes of the first half. Wide receiver Skylar Green had dropped three passes while quarterback Matt Mauck lost a fumble. Coach Nick Saban patted Mauck on the back after the fumble and said, “forget it, next time we score.” To the team he said, “whatever happens, you play the next play, and you do it for 60 minutes.” Georgia had penetrated LSU territory five times in the first half, but only came away with three points.
Despite the lack of success, the offensive lineman kept trying to open holes. The defense kept playing hard. The receivers kept running their routes. Finally it paid off when Mauck hit Green with a 31 yard pass on third and nine. Two plays later running back Shyrone Carey broke loose for a 21 yard touchdown. They held on to win the game, 17 -10.
Right when the game ended, about twenty miles down-river at our motocross race in Gonzales, the first class was lining up at the starting gate. A 17 year-old rider by the name of Cody Smiley was signed up to race in the money class. He had just moved up out of the novice class last month, and was not a favorite to win.
Cody got off to a poor start, watching the whole field get away from him. But he kept running his race. He kept making good decisions, even though things weren’t going his way. Eventually, the leader crashed and two other riders’ bikes broke down. Cody finished in second place.
The second moto it happened again. He got off to a poor start. Even a novice class rider, who was racing this class tonight, passed him. But he hung in there and rode hard. This time both leaders went down and Cody ended up winning the race!
During his post-race interview, I asked him what he’d like to say to those riders who are struggling. He answered, “just keep your head up, keep practicing, and you’ll get good.” That’s not the whole story. Four years ago Cody watched his little sister recover from Leukemia. Two years ago he lost his mother in a car accident. Now he’s won his first moto in the money class as a motocross racer.
Keep YOUR head up. Keep making good decisions. Things will change.
Scriptures of the Day: “But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.” (2 Chronicles 15:7)
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9)
Quote for the Day: “The end is not yet.” (Jesus in Matthew 24:6)
(from "Racing Fuel for the Spirit" by Roy Jenkins)
Growing
I’m wiping the sweat off my forearms as I type. I just came in from my working my vegetable garden. It’s June 2nd and the summer heat of Louisiana is here already. I pulled some weeds from around the peppers and tomatoes. I chopped the soil around the cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes. Then I dug a trench and added a garden soil mix with earthworms that my wife had in her first grade class (it was a science lesson). After re-covering the bed with leaves and pine needles I set the sprinkler and watered.
Life is a lot like a garden. Some people mistakenly believe that God will just bring them everything they need if they just pray hard enough. No, there is work that we must do. He provides for the birds of the air, but he doesn’t take the food to the nest. They have to gather.
In the same way, we must sow seeds. The Bible says we will reap what we sow (Galatians 6:7) and we will reap the amount we sow (Luke 6:38). The worries of life and the deceitfulness of wealth may choke our faith, destroying our peace and joy (Matthew 13:22). God expects us to produce a harvest of good fruit for Him with the abilities, faith, resources and gifts He has given us (Matthew 3:8-10; 12:33). Sometimes, our lives need pruning and some things must go (John 15:2) to make us more productive. Other times God adds fertilizer to our lives to bring new life (Luke 13:6-9).
Are there seeds you need to sow in someone’s life today? Do you need to be more generous? Do you need to pull some weeds of worry or material desires? Are we using the abilities and gifts God gave us for His good? Is God trying to remove something or someone from our lives? Are we getting a second chance at something that we need to do right this time?
Let’s work with God today. Then we’ll be in awe as He produces so much good that we know it could have only come from Him.
Quote for the Day: “A wise farmer puts as much thought into sowing as he does to reaping.” (Unknown)
(from "Racing Fuel for the Spirit" by Roy Jenkins)