Like Learning to Ride a Bike

November 26th
Like Learning to Ride a Bike
By: Pastor Chrissy Cooney

In my family, learning to ride a bike is a rite of passage.  I can still picture the moment when I got it right for the first time as a child and I can perfectly describe exactly where we were when each of our children successfully rode on their own as well.

But if you’ve ever learned how to ride a bike – or taught someone else – you know it doesn’t happen in one day.  It takes practice, trying and failing, learning to get the balance right, the focus, and spatial awareness. The learner just has to keep getting back on that bike and trying again and again.  Once you get it, though, once you have the feel for it  - victory! It becomes a skill you will never lose.

Like children learning to ride a bike, as we set out to accomplish the good things that God has set in our path, there will be places that we struggle, fall, or crash right into something that wasn’t meant for us.

But parents, teaching their children to ride a bike, know that failure is a part of the process.

  They know that victory comes from getting back on the bike and trying again.
Our Good Father knows that mistakes are a part of the process too, and He loves to see us persevere. Philippians 1:6 tells us, “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” He is working for us – like a father running alongside his daughter, one hand on the bike. Our job is to get back on the bike when we fall and keep riding with Him. Through this relationship – this trying and failing and adjusting and learning – we will finish well and see victory in Christ Jesus!