S04E002, Shredded Tyres, Persistence And Holes, Andy B 2 Minute Video

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Andy B finally got his bike working, when he then had to fit a replacement rear wheel.

All good?

Well no! Because he forgot to add a small strip of plastic that protects the inner tube from the holes in the wheel, that allow the spokes to connect to the central point of the wheel.

And, just like in life, we can sometimes be too eager to get to the finish line, rather than simply work through what is in front of us.

Instruction books are great, if we read them.

And Scripture provides us with the very best of instruction books! Scripture doesn’t stop us having to go through tough seasons of life. But it does remind us how we can better work through those difficulties.

Andy B

Just a thought...

Andy B

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So I went out for a ride recently, and, erm, I had a puncture. Quite a bad puncture, actually.

Having replaced loads of parts on my bike, I then had to replace a wheel, and when I replaced the wheel I forgot to put a protective strip, that goes around the wheel, and it protects the inner tube from all the holes on the wheel where the spokes go through to the middle.

So you've got the wheel. Spoke goes through. Spoke goes through a whole. The inner tube kept on bashing, under pressure, onto these little holes. And eventually it ruptured the inner tube.

So I'm out in the wild. I've got a photo for you of that of me fixing my bike, but I was really frustrated because it's such a silly thing to do. It was really foolish not to put that little, cheap, plastic thing, that goes and it just protects the inner tube.

But where do we do that in life? Where we know what we're supposed to do, and we don't do it 'cos we're in such a rush to get to where we're supposed to be. We don't take the time to make sure we can actually get there.

Mine was 60 minutes of cycling. I managed about 10, before I had a major issue, and I had to limp home on my bike.

And we have that, don't we? We just, we rush into things, where we should be slow.

God never, ever rushes!

I heard it once said, beautifully, that God, erm, chooses to operate within the constraints of time, so He can have a relationship with us. But He's not constrained by time, and if He's not constrained by time, because he has eternity before Him, He therefore can't rush, and neither should we.

We see, don't we, in the pattern of the 7 day week, that on the 7th day it's different from the first 6, because we're supposed to rest on that 7th day?

We see in the seasons Spring, Autumn, Winter, and Summer, there's a cycle to what we go through and it moves through and the seasons don't rush.

The week doesn't rush.

Time doesn't rush.

God doesn't rush and we shouldn't.

We need to look at the instruction book, in Scripture, and study that. Not because it will prevent us from having every single problem, ever. As Christians we're not devoid of strife and difficulties. But when we follow Scripture we understand the beauty of how God is using our life here on Earth, to prepare us for heaven.

So let's not rush into things!

Otherwise, like me, you might find yourself out riding, having foolishly not fitted a really cheap, little, plastic ring, that protects your wheel and your inner tube from hurting each other. And you'll have a puncture.

So let's avoid spiritual ruptures in our inner-tubes by protecting them.

And how do we protect that inner tubes, our spiritual inner tubes?

Well, what we do is we read Scripture, we pray, we worship, we spend time with other people and we choose to follow God, not to worry, not to be anxious.

And then we won't have ruptured inner-tubes!

So be careful when you've got something new to play with that you read the instructions, so you know what God's asking you to do. You know what the instructions are asking you to do?

Just a thought.