Go far…

At the beginning of this summer my wife and I bought a new bike for our daughter.  This was going to be the summer that she would leave her tricycle behind and start her new life as a biker…ok so that didn’t come out quite right, but you get the idea…  It did not go as planned.  The bike sat in our garage all summer, and there was no way she was going to even get on it.  But this all changed a few weeks ago.  My amazing neighbour, a young girl who has had a huge impact on my daughter’s life, taught my daughter to ride her “big girl bike”.  It didn’t take much, just some encouragement, a smile, and a willingness to spend some time her.  In a few days she was so comfortable that she and my neighbour rode off together down the sidewalk.  She went until she was almost out of sight and then turned around and came back to the house.  She came to me with so much excitement in her voice and she shouted “Daddy, I went FAR!”  She did.  My daughter realized that on a bike she could cover so much more ground than if she was simply walking.

I started to think about all of the steps that have helped her move further and faster towards independence.  When she learned to crawl she could go further, and when she learned to walk she could go further, just recently learning to ride her bike took her further still.  Eventually she will learn to drive and it will help her go further again.  It made me think about my own life as well, and I thought about my own spiritual journey.  There are definitely skills that help us go further in our walk with God, but the problem is that they so often stay in our garage.  We have been working through a series here at Compass Point called “In case of emergency” and these are some of the tools, or the skills that will help us go further with God.  I know for me there are a few tools that have been gathering dust and its time to bring them out again.  When my daughter said to me “Daddy, I went far” it made me realize that I want to go far too.  And I want that for you as well, go to your “garage” find those tools that will help you, and go far!