Life Is Like A Motorcycle

Life is a Bike (This was written for our annual Bring Your Bike to Church Day)

As you can tell from the video and from some of the rides out front there are all kinds of motorcycles. Some are really nice and cost a lot of money and some are just basic transportation. But they are all motorcycles, that is they are cycles and they have motors and for the most part they do they same job, they get you from point “A” to point “B”. Some might be a little prettier or more comfortable then others. There might be some comforts on some that are missing on others but the basics are there. And so they are a lot like life in general. All our lives are different. Your life is different then mine, it might be easier or it might be tougher. Or perhaps more accurately it might be perceived as being easier or tougher.

You understand that we are all given a life to live and each one of us decides what we are going to do with it. Song writer and singer Joan Baez said “You don’t get to choose how you’re going to die, or when. You can decide how you’re going to live now.” Each of our lives is different but it is a life and it’s the only one we get.

And when we look at the motorcycles that are parked out front they cover a full range but I will tell you this, as basic as some of them are, and my bikes usually fit in the basic category, there are bikes out there that are a lot worse. And as nice as some of them are and there are some nice bikes parked out front this morning, there are bikes around that are a lot nicer. This is a MV Agusta F4 CC worth about $135,000.00 Canadian, but that does include tax. And if that is still a little too pedestrian for your taste Chrysler developed a bike called the Tomahawk which utilizes the viper engine and says it will go into limited production next year and will sell for a cool $250,000.00.

I don’t know all there is to know about your life, I don’t know what you’ve suffered, the abuse you’ve had to endure or the poverty and illness that you have experienced, but I can almost guarantee you that there are other people in this world that have it worse then you, they might even be in this very room.

And maybe you haven’t had it rough, maybe you think you are pretty privileged today. And maybe you are, but there are a lot of people out there who have had it easier then you. And there are people who have had an incredibly horrible life and have risen above it and other’s who were born into a life of privilege and have squandered it away.

That my friends is life and while we may not all have a motorcycle today or even want one, We all have a life. And life is made up of choices and decisions that are made. Every once in awhile I’ll be talking to someone and they will tell me how lucky I am to have a motorcycle and how they wished they did. And for the most part most of them could probably have a bike like mine or nicer if they really wanted it. And luck would have very little to do with it. But that’s neither here nor there.

And as different as all our motorcycles are today they all have something in common, we get on them at the beginning of our journey and we get off at the end and in between it is all a matter of balance. And here is a truth, we come into this world head first and go out feet first; in between, it is all a matter of balance. To use a not too spiritual statement we each have to play the hand we’ve been dealt.

The title of my message today is Life is a Bike.

1) It’s Supposed To Be Fun. Here’s the reality, we might tell people we ride because of the great mileage we get but my Toyota gets better mileage then my Yamaha. We might justify our rides by saying it keeps the mileage off our cars, and that’s important but not that important in the rain and cold. We might attempt to make an environmental or economic case for riding but the reality is if it wasn’t fun we wouldn’t be doing it. Catching the bus is a lot more economical and better for the environment and I’m pretty sure if you checked with any of us that brought our bikes today there wouldn’t be a bus pass amongst us.