Have you ever made fun of someone because they were too yella or chicken to do something you thought they should? You know were that attitude comes from? Yeah, that’s right, your prideful nature! And do you know what God does to your prideful nature? He doesn’t just dislike it, and He doesn’t just make war on it. No, instead…He beats it out of you, throws it to the ground, and smashes it into the mud! At least that was what He did to mine.
I was Mountain Biking at the time…
It was sunny and bright and the clouds were puffy! It was one of those rare perfect days when the old mercury read just about 21°C. It had rained the day before but not so much as to prohibit riding.
There is a park just a mile from my apartment in Arbutus, so I ride my bike there and back. They say it is some of the best Mountain Biking in the region! I was in heaven, just enjoying my ride. Mike, my landlord, was riding with me. We hit some of the small easy hills and then, after we had warmed up a bit, we did some of the tougher hills with logs, rocks, and other obstacles.
Mike, being in his forties, did not want to do anything too exciting. I tried to goad him into some of the jumps and stuff but he would have none of it! After about an hour of this, we came to a long down hill part of one of the trails with some really awesome jumps!
*I need to clear something up here. When I say jumps, I mean ramps. They are made out of small logs and dirt. The ramps go up and then back down the other side with a big log to round out the top. Very much like this: /O\ *
To continue:
I was like, “Come on Mike! You at least can do one!”
He was like, “Do I look stupid?”
Now, you do realize what he is implying, right? It dawned on me…later.
So there I was just having a grand old time jumping all the little jumps and going over the bigger stuff. I was laughing jokingly at Mike the whole time.
Right about then God intervened. My chain slipped after one jump and I had to stop and fix it. Meanwhile, we are near the bottom of the hill and Mike goes ahead of me and around the last ramp before the trail starts to clime again. This one was about 10 feet wide, 5 feet high, and had a huge log laying across the top! He then rides up the trail a little ways and stops to look back at me bent over my bike.
“You OK?” He calls.
“Just the chain. Got it!” I yell back after I had gotten it back on.
I then look up and see that he is just smiling at me.
“What’s up?” I ask.
“Oh, nothing…you going to be able to get over that?” He gestures at the jump while grinning like a clown.
“Watch me!” I yell and push off toward the jump.
I knew I could do it because I had done one like farther uphill so I did not think anything of it.
I got up a good amount of speed and hit the ramp going about 15 mph, which is pretty fast on a trail like this. I went up and was just breezing over the top of the huge log when I realized four things at the same time:
- The down slope side was lower, thus the drop farther then the 5 feet I had thought.
- This jump did not have a ramp leading down the other side.
- Instead of a ramp, there was just a very large pool of wetness (mud) 6 or 7 feet below me.
- Mike knew all this long before I did.
/O~~~~~~~ That’s what it looked like with the mud puddle…or should I say, lake.
God taught me a very important lesson that day: When you biking buddy is smiling for no apparent reason…be very careful. That and, He can’t abide pride.
O, and Mike was absolutely no help. He was on the ground crying…and it wasn’t with concern for me! O, he asked if I was OK and all…through his tears. He tried to help me out of the mud but for some reason his muscles were seriously lacking coordination at that moment. Couldn’t he tell I was in need of some serious EGO repair! I’m telling you, that man has issues!
Well, that was how God dealt with my pride that day. I will never forget it…as long as Mike is still alive to remind me!
Cheers!
