The Bike
I've been wanting to buy my dad a decent bike for a few years already. But it always falls into the "we can't really afford it right now" category.
He loves to go camping at Bird's Hill Park which has a pretty neat paved bike trail. He's been using my 40 year old brother's 10 speed (the one he used while in university some 20 years ago) It does the job and my dad gets around and he enjoys his hobby of biking through nature and even off roading with it's skinny tires. My dad has used newer bikes and enjoyed them, but since he has a "perfectly good bike" he's never even thought of buying himself a new one.
I dated a guy in university who was really into biking. Needless to say he helped me buy a "really nice" bike that had more than I was used to having. Before this I didn't know it was possible to change gears without grinding and peddle effortlessly. I loved my bike for all these fabulous new features and wanted to buy my dad a really nice bike so he too could enjoy what he's never really had before.
Now this father's day I decided to buy him our dream bike. However as I went about shopping for it looking for things he needed like a comfy seat, a "seniors" color, Shimano gears, shocks and mountain bike tires a terrible reality began to set in. I coudn't buy him the bike I wanted to because it would be a 600$ bike. Not because I wasn't willing to spend that much on him but because He would refuse to keep it. Knowing my dad and his "I use what I have and I don't complain" attitude, he would make me return the gift I've dreamt of giving him. So I went about shopping for the best bike I could find that he would allow me to give him.
What I couldn't help but wonder was how often we do this to God. Refuse to accept things from him that we don't think we deserve or are too extravagant. Like grace, we all try to earn it. He wants to give us it in abundance and we will only take the crumbs that we feel we deserve because we've apologized or changed our ways. I want to be able to receive whatever it is God has for me and not limit his dreams for me with what "will do"or even meets my expectations. God's dreams for me are probably much bigger than my own. He is God afterall.
He loves to go camping at Bird's Hill Park which has a pretty neat paved bike trail. He's been using my 40 year old brother's 10 speed (the one he used while in university some 20 years ago) It does the job and my dad gets around and he enjoys his hobby of biking through nature and even off roading with it's skinny tires. My dad has used newer bikes and enjoyed them, but since he has a "perfectly good bike" he's never even thought of buying himself a new one.
I dated a guy in university who was really into biking. Needless to say he helped me buy a "really nice" bike that had more than I was used to having. Before this I didn't know it was possible to change gears without grinding and peddle effortlessly. I loved my bike for all these fabulous new features and wanted to buy my dad a really nice bike so he too could enjoy what he's never really had before.
Now this father's day I decided to buy him our dream bike. However as I went about shopping for it looking for things he needed like a comfy seat, a "seniors" color, Shimano gears, shocks and mountain bike tires a terrible reality began to set in. I coudn't buy him the bike I wanted to because it would be a 600$ bike. Not because I wasn't willing to spend that much on him but because He would refuse to keep it. Knowing my dad and his "I use what I have and I don't complain" attitude, he would make me return the gift I've dreamt of giving him. So I went about shopping for the best bike I could find that he would allow me to give him.
What I couldn't help but wonder was how often we do this to God. Refuse to accept things from him that we don't think we deserve or are too extravagant. Like grace, we all try to earn it. He wants to give us it in abundance and we will only take the crumbs that we feel we deserve because we've apologized or changed our ways. I want to be able to receive whatever it is God has for me and not limit his dreams for me with what "will do"or even meets my expectations. God's dreams for me are probably much bigger than my own. He is God afterall.
3 Comments:
I think you are totally wonderful for wanting to be so generous with your Dad.
I'll have to chat with you about just how to buy a bike...because it appears that my new roomie loves biking, and is hell-bent on having me join her.
I haven't owned a bike since I was 14. Scarey!
...very good point and good thoughts on the way we receive from God....
In regards to this (us holding back God's generosity) I am glad that He is more persistent than I am.
He is more patient, and continues to offer even when I've said no thanks, if this were not the case, I would not be in my new house.
God just kept after me until I took and now I'm so glad that I did.
Some of us are just SLOW learners!
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