Cutting Corners Not Recommended!

   

Sometimes I ride the bike to my piano teacher’s house for a lesson when Al has the car and is running errands in Porterville. It’s not far, only a couple of miles each way, if that much.  The scenery along the way is very beautiful. There are a few hills which require harder pedaling uphill but are nice for coasting on the way down. There’s only one dog which is sometimes pesky wanting to race alongside my bike, barking and nipping at my heels. He usually turns around after a short distance thankfully. Lately he hasn’t even ventured down his driveway when I’ve ridden past the house.

    A few weeks ago we made the same arrangement—Al would take the car down to town in the morning and I would ride the bike over to Rosemary’s. “By the way,” he asked, “have you checked to see if the tires need air?” Al is always a good person for details!

     “No, but I’ll check them before I go,” I assured him. There were a couple of small delays just before leaving for the lesson, however. By the time I got the bike out of the garage, put on the helmet and stashed my piano music in the small pack, it was late.

     I kicked the tires a couple of times. They did seem low on air. “Oh well, it will be ok,” I rationalized pedaling down the graveled driveway. There wasn’t enough time to find the hand pump and air up both tires. However, rationalizing didn’t put air in the nearly flat tires and soon I was huffing and puffing for air myself! It was very hard work and time consuming too. The few extra minutes spent pumping up the tires would have been well worth it, saving time and energy in the long run.

     On the way home after the keyboard lesson, a car pulled up behind me and stopped at the base of a long uphill grade. I was just thinking that I might have to get off the bike and walk, when a friendly, familiar voice asked “Would you like a ride?” It was Al, who had decided to come back home early to give me a ride home.

    “I’ll take the bike. You drive the car,” he said.

    “Well, um, the tires are a little low,” I confessed. He was nice enough to ride it home anyway and I followed in the car.

     The first words he uttered when he rode into the garage were “Wow! That was really hard work!” It was a day of two lessons—one musical and the second about not cutting corners when it comes to important things.

      Likewise, there are certain things which we need to do right if we desire to have a close relationship with Jesus. We can’t cut corners in daily Bible reading, praying, obeying Him, worshiping with other believers regularly and sharing the good news of Jesus with the people He puts in our paths. The challenge is to make the necessary time to do these things; however omitting any of them will result in a Christian walk which is just like my bike tires—flat!

   

      “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” Ephesians 5:15-17 NIV