Bikes & Boulders — Ami Loper

When I was a young girl and my dad was teaching me to ride a bike, it was no easy task. The bike and I had a love-hate relationship. I wanted to learn this basic skill, but I was so fearful that it made it difficult for both my father and me. I never learned to ride really well, but I do remember one particular lesson Dad taught me.

He was working with me one evening, holding onto the back of the seat and I was trying to coordinate pedaling and steering. Suddenly, I noticed a football-sized boulder to the right of my path. It scared me even though it wasn’t on my path, so I kept my eyes on it as we approached. But somehow, the more I stared at that rock, the more I diverged toward it! Finally, I hit the rock and fell.

That’s when Dad said something that has always stayed with me: “What you focus on is where you will naturally end up.” I couldn’t have understood this before, but having tried so hard to avoid that boulder, it ended up being exactly what I aimed for! Dad continued, “You have to focus on where you want to go, not on where you don’t.”

Wow. What profound words of wisdom – not just for bike riding – for life! There is power in what we focus on. I’m not talking about some weird, mystical power but a legitimate human reality.

I learned this lesson once again when I learned to drive and have watched my children learn it when they learned to drive. I’ve seen it in people who have been so focused on the negative things in this world that nothing positive ever seems to happen for them anymore and I’ve seen people who expect good and get it! Proverbs 11:27 tells us, “He who seeks good finds goodwill, but evil comes to him who searches for it.”

Like Lot moving within sight of Sodom and eventually being in the midst of it or like Peter turning his focus from the Lord to the waves he was walking on and going down with them, where we focus will determine where we go. On the positive side, Lot eventually determinedly set his sight away from Sodom and his life was spared.

If our focus is on the right things, this truth is wonderful! If we are focused on the goodness of God in our lives, all we have to be grateful for and the incredible plans He has for us, it will bring hope and joy into our hearts. Conversely, if we think we serve a God who neither loves us nor wants the best for us, if we are focused on all the negative things in this world, we are allowing fear and discouragement into our lives.

I’m choosing to fix my focus on my Love, my Jesus, and the incredibly wonderful plans He has for me. As I ride down this road, I’m sure there will be boulders, hazards and traps, but that is not where my focus will reside. I will focus on His good promises and His loving care of me. I will fix my gaze in His gaze and have the ride of my life.

“Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

For more on gaining a better perspective, read the blog titled, “Crabgrass” by clicking HERE.

And to get further grounded in the love of God, check out the FREE RESOURCE and PRINTABLE titled, “God’s Love is…” by clicking HERE!