REMEMBER WHERE YOU CAME FROM

Devotional By Dennis Reynolds

I currently own three motorcycles. In my garage, side by side, there is a Street Glide, an Electra Glide, and a Road Glide. Does anyone see a pattern here?

My choices of two wheeled transportation indicate that I am into comfort for the long haul and plenty of space for my stuff. My bikes are all equipped with Harley Davidson “Sundowner” saddles which provide day long comfort no matter how many miles I travel. They all either have GPS or a place to mount my phone so I can use Google Maps for directions. Each one is a full fairing motorcycle which helps protect me from the elements, and, most importantly, they provide me with full stereo systems. There is nothing like speeding down the highway listening to Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild” blaring through the speakers. On top of all that, they also have a place for my coffee cup!

My son rides a 1200 sportster (his first motorcycle) with none of the above.

One day, I decided to take the Sportster up the road for a short evening ride. While the motorcycle is very fast, the wind beat me to death, the seat gave me a wedgie, and it vibrated horribly!

When I returned to the garage, we discussed the particulars of the bike, and I was sure to make him aware that I wouldn’t be borrowing it again any time soon. Still, he loves the motorcycle and is happy to ride it almost anywhere.

That evening, as I was having a glass of iced tea on my back porch, I began thinking about my earlier conversation with my son. While I have been riding for over fifty years, this was his very first motorcycle, and it was leaps and bounds above my first bike.

As I sat and sipped on the glass of tea, my mind was flooded with memories of my youth and the motorcycles that had come my way. While I had been riding mini-bikes and dirt bikes for years, my first “for real” street bike was a 1982 Yamaha Maxim 550 that I purchased brand new. It had no windshield, no luggage, a skinny little seat, it was as slow as cold molasses, and I LOVED it! On the seat of that motorcycle, I spent summers riding around the lake with several different young ladies snuggled up behind me, cruised the mall parking lot every Friday and Saturday night, and took day trips to surrounding towns and into the mountains.

1993 was the first year I made the trip to Washington DC, and by then I was riding a late model Honda Shadow. It had no bags, so my stuff was strapped across the back seat, no stereo to listen to, but thankfully it at least had a windshield. Since there was no radio, I clipped a Walkman onto the windshield and plugged in a set of cheap headphones I had wired into my helmet for the trip. That lasted about an hour. Somewhere on Interstate 85, my tire hit a bump and the Walkman shattered all over the blacktop.

My current three motorcycles are my 15th, 16th, and 17th street bikes. Many others have come and gone, and with each new motorcycle, the comfort level has grown ever so slightly.

Sometimes those of us with big fancy tour bikes forget the bygone days where we struggled with different things just to be able to ride. Those times when we had no choice but to roll our cigarettes up in our shirt sleeve, or chug a soft drink and a pack of crackers because most of our money went into the gas tank, or when we were sitting under an overpass in a thunderstorm because we had no such luxury as rain gear.

As those memories slip farther into the past, we can become just a bit snotty and tend to look down on folks who ride bikes that are not quite up to our standards, just as I had unwittingly done with my son’s Sportster.

As Christians, we can be guilty of the same thing.

Sometimes when we become Christians and have years of walking with Jesus under our belt, we tend to look down on people who are still struggling in their own lives. When new Christians make mistakes in their walk, we are ready to tell them how bad they messed up, but we stop short of encouraging them and lending a helping hand. We tend to forget that at one time, we were struggling as well, and we often still do.

The next time you see someone who is hurting, battling their demons, or just not in a good place in life, remember where you came from and what it was like. No one is perfect, no one is sinless, and everyone needs Jesus.

1 Corinthians 1:26-29 New International Version “Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.”

Ride on and stay safe, Dennis Reynolds

Mideast Regional Elder Bikers for Christ M/M

Lexington SC Veterans Memorial

Ride your motorcycle on Ride To Work Day

June 19, 2023 and demonstrate:

– The number of motorcyclists to the general public and politicians

– Motorcyclists are from all occupations and all walks of life

– Motorcyclists can reduce traffic congestion in large cities

– Motorcycles are for transportation as well as recreation

*NOTE ABOUT THE 2024 DAY (and following years): Because the recently established United States federal holiday of Juneteenth is the same day as the current RTW Day, because many business and government entities now close on this day, and because RTW Day is about riding to work (as well as for utility transportation), starting in 2024 RTW Day will annually be on the Second Tuesday in June. This day is chosen because: A) it breaks up the workweek better than a Monday day does (RTW Day is a demonstration day), and B) because a midweek day is more likely to receive media coverage than a Monday or Friday.