Biker Pride!

Read 1 John 1:8-10

"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us."

So, today I got into a lil bike accident. I know...me and that bike, boy...I tell ya. I’ll pause for gasps and “OMG’s”. :-) I’m okay, though. Seriously. The bike is fine. I’m fine. Aside from a few scrapes & scratches to the brownskin; a bruised forearm and shin that I’ll feel a whole heck of a lot more of tomorrow, I’m good. I’m really good. It coulda been much worse, believe me. I got “car’d” - as I heard someone call it. Not, CARD. But CAR’d. Being CAR'd is basically when a biker rides down the street and a person in a parked car opens their driver’s side door at just the right time to have the biker smash into it. Thankfully for me, because of my crazy, supa-ninja, cat-like skills, I was agile enough to steer the bike just enough in the nick of time to where I saved the bike and only collided the right side of my body against the car door. Again....I’m fine. I’m thinkin’, though....maybe if my skills were just a lil doper....I could’ve basically avoided the car, altogether. Eh...that’s neither here nor there. C’est la vie. It hurt...but not nearly as bad as you may think.

So, how it went down was, I hit the door. I’m not quite knocked off my bike because I managed to stick my left leg out to brace myself....(again, fam, the skills are like, “WHOA”). ;-) So, I’m standing there in pain, right - hunched over, holding my forearm in obvious, unmistakable, barefaced pain - and I look back and the guy in the car begins to slowly edge toward me with a sort of casual ambivalence and says dryly, almost nonchalantly, “Hey, you should watch where you’re going”. Without missing a beat, I put on my “threatening Black man voice” (most of us have one ;-)) and barked at this dude, “Really!? That’s the first thing you gon’ say!!? Not ‘SORRY’?!” Then he kinda goes to say, “Oh, I’m sorry”, but I didn’t even stick around to hear it. At that point, I was through and I just waved him off and pedaled away; holding my right forearm in pain.

I rode away hot, y’all. I mean...ya boy was angry. “He knew he was wrong”, I kept thinking. And he WAS! I had the right of way. I was on the right side and going in the right direction. Had on my helmet, too! The man just didn’t look. Point blank. And the truth is, I may have even accepted that we BOTH could’ve shared the blame - that we both could’ve been a bit more vigilant....(even though I WAS!) But the truth & root of my anger came from the fact that this man would have the audacity and cowardice gall to divert his obvious wrong and somehow come out of his mouth and initiate our exchange by saying that I should watch where I’M going. This man chose to first try and place the fault and blame on anyone other than himself - namely, ME -  instead of simply apologizing.....which I would have absolutely accepted. He should’ve “confessed” and said that he was sorry. I deserved that! THAT’S why Warner was mad! The injustice of it!

As I continued to ride, though - with my amped up “righteous indignation” and entitled victimhood raging in my eyes; with just a dash of self-righteousness - my ever teaching, ever reaching and always loving Father convicted me by showing me myself and bringing a recent transgression of mine back to my remembrance. You see, on the previous night...I responded - no, reacted - to something; a circumstance that gave me a choice of whether to sin or to not. I unfortunately & regrettably chose to sin. I didn’t kill anybody and no one was in physical danger or anything. But I KNEW I was wrong and I did it anyway. To add, although I knew it was wrong, I began to coddle my sinful reaction by rationalizing & justifying in my head that I was in some way deserving of that reaction. Although it was clearly wrong and I knew it....I attempted to pacify myself by saying I had a right - however small - to it. In my mind, I’d even apologized to God for it. Sincerely. Yet to my disappointment and shame, it wasn’t truly as sincere as I’d liked to believe because my apology was mixed in with a bit of self-commendation. Like, “I’m sorry....buuuut I kinda, sorta, in a small way deserved it.” I was just like that man who’d hit me with the car door: knowing in my heart of hearts that I was wrong, but because of embarrassment or pride or ego or all of the above, was unwilling to confess the wrong and simply ask the Father for forgiveness.

Such is the subtlety (and diabolically wicked potency of ‘pride’). Pride is a doozy, man. It really is. A underrated and dangerous doozy, at that. And it’s so easily and so frequently undetected because it masquerades as something noble and is often excused in oneself or tolerated in someone else. Look, most sins begin and/or are founded in pride, fam. That extreme place of: ‘I deserve’; ‘I’m entitled’, ‘I know what’s best’, etc. There's no greater place for sin to hide and fester than in the undetectable, vastly overlooked and easily disguised place of pride. It’s the most unassuming yet destructive of sins. It’s caused kings to fall and relationships to crumble. It’s what ultimately lead to Lucifer's fall, Adam & Eve's transgression and Judas' betrayal. In all those circumstances, it was pride that was at the root. It’s pride - not lust, not murder, not hatred, not greed or envy nor any other thing - that God pronounces as "coming before the fall". (Proverbs 16:18) It is the proud person with whom God resists - (Psalm 138:6, Proverbs 29:23, Matthew 23:12, James 4:6 & 1 Peter 5:5) - because it is pride that is ultimately at the root of an errant mindset that declares, "I'm not that bad" OR "I'm certainly not as bad as they are" and ultimately, "I don't need or require a Savior".

To ask for forgiveness can be the most easy and yet hardest thing to do. I know this...trust! ;-) Yet it is at the foundation of any & all great & important relationships....most importantly, your relationship to God through Jesus Christ. It requires a certain amount of maturity but most of all...HUMILITY.

"....Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” Therefore submit to God...." ~ James 4:6-7

Again, it is the proud man that says, “I don’t need God or require a Savior”. The humble man, however, declares, “I know that I consistently fall short of Your glory and standard and am a sinner before You, God. Help me. Save me”.

There’s something to be said for a habitual self-checking/examining/evaluating of yourself in relation to pride. A daily practice of considering your ways. Why not ask the Lord God to search your heart to reveal and then root out any pride that may have hidden itself inside you and disguised itself as something noble. Check it before it ultimately and inevitably checks YOU! Dig it. Amen.

1 John 1:8-10 (Amplified Bible)

"If we say we have no sin [refusing to admit that we are sinners], we delude and lead ourselves astray, and the Truth [which the Gospel presents] is not in us [does not dwell in our hearts]. If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just (true to His own nature and promises) and will forgive our sins [dismiss our lawlessness] and [continuously] cleanse us from all unrighteousness [everything not in conformity to His will in purpose, thought, and action]. If we say (claim) we have not sinned, we contradict His Word and make Him out to be false and a liar, and His Word is not in us [the divine message of the Gospel is not in our hearts]."

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"For if we are beside ourselves [mad, as some say], it is for God and concerns Him; if we are in our right mind, it is for your benefit." ~ 2 Corinthians 5:13 (Amplified Bible)