Blog 814 – 11.14.2017

Easy Rider

There was a movie in the mid nineteen sixties by that name about some rebel hippy motorcycle riders. It always struck me as an inappropriate title for two guys swimming against the establishment stream and bucking the system. To me the line from another song from about the same time speaks to a more easy ride. The line is:

“Jesus loves me this I know, so I keep going with the flow.” Jesus, as those of you who know his story know, did not choose a very easy ride either. He chose to go against the status quo, to tweak the religious leaders noses as it were for he called them “white washed tombs – all clean and pretty on the outside, but on the inside full of rottenness and dead men’s bones.” Jesus never read Dale Carnegie’s book, How To Win Friends And Influence People. But, he did win a lot of followers and friends and he did influence a lot of people.

Some would say the grass roots movement he started never really caught on till it became the State Religion of Rome. Over the years many sects have claimed that was the worst thing to ever happen to Christianity. I, myself, tried to be a Christian for many years but found it like most groups that I have tried to affiliate with over the years quite unlike the guiding principles they themselves claim they stand for. Christianity, like like Tide detergent, with each spin off, claims to be “New and Improved” or more often claims to go back to the original formula like “Classic Coke.” But soon they all seem about the same, like a play by Shakespeare, “Much Ado About Nothing.”

Abraham Lincoln said, “When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That is my religion.”

One of my all time favorite Christian writers C. S. Lewis, wrote: “To Be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”

I have found that most people who call themselves Christians practice judgement a lot more than forgiveness. The book and the movie, The Shack, shows in graphic detail what “Papa” thinks of our judgements. A great line from the story has Jesus saying to Mack, “Well, Mack, I am not exactly a Christian.”

Riding a bicycle is a lot easier than riding a motorcycle. Being a Christian in America is easier than being anything else. Being real at whatever you are is always a rougher ride than pretending just to fit in. Last year about this time a World War Two movie was released called Hacksaw Ridge. It is a tremendous story of a young man who wanted to serve but refused to take up arms because he wanted to save lives not take them. He wanted to serve as a medic and he did. His was not an easy ride but quite a ride to remember.

I write this on Veterans Day. I salute those who served. I am a Vietnam Vet. I heard a fellow Vietnam Vet express my wish as well to those who wish to thank us for our service. “Let us all do what we can to prevent foolish wars.”

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White