I really like riding a motorcycle. The other day I was lucky enought to get to ride to work and to the hospital for visitation. I love the fact that when I am on my bike, I have time to think, ponder and wonder about life. You see, you have to ride with everything in sight and ready to react at a moment's notice or you will find yourself in trouble. You don't enter a corner without taking a look to see if there is loose gravel, you always are keeping an eye out behind you in case someone wants to run you over. You are watching for animals coming out of the bar ditches or turtles crossing the road. You pay attention to the wind; when and where the gust are liable to be that will try to blow you around. You watch the clouds and avoid those that are filled with rain. All your senses are engaged and your mind is processing every threat and every thing that comes within the area you are traveling.

I wish we would do this in our personal life all the time. I know that when I get in the "cage" (car to all of you non riders) my senses are turned off to an extent. I don't look for those things that could cause an accident as much as I do when I am on the bike. If a deer runs out in front of me; in the cage I have a better chance of wrecking the deer than the deer wrecking me. The "cage" is indeed safer, but also cuts you off from the surrounding world.

Sometimes church does that to us. It is safe being around people who think like you, act like you and talk like you. But it does not thrill the senses like it does when you are all out in the open and you notice every single detail of the people around you. How the talk, how they act, what they do and how they respond to situations in their life. So I would enourage you, saddle up your spiritual steed and start riding some new roads. You never know what you might encounter along the way.