No Coasting

Put effort in moving.

Coast.

Stop.

Go backwards. 

This sums up life on a bicycle. You know, 

“I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike.” 

(Queen—if you don’t know it you’re not old like me.)

Seriously, when you ride a bike, these are your options. 

You work and push yourself forward. 

This means you apply yourself and expand energy to make progress. You have to focus on what you are doing and why. There is a goal you are seeking to accomplish and you know you won’t make it to your destination without work.

Coast. You stop working and let the momentum of past effort or achievements carry you for a little while. This is okay, for a moment. I used to ride my bike back to town and school. On the way, there was a pretty big hill to climb. It was a walker. You know, the kind you can’t make using pedals and have to walk your bike up it. I knew it was coming so I would get as much momentum as I could and work. I refused to walk. Everyday I would crest the top of that hill breathless but victorious. As soon as I topped it, I would throw a few more pedals in and then coast. The other side was a breeze. I had a speedometer on my bike and I sometimes hit forty mph going down it. The thing about it was this. No matter how fast I went, at some point my momentum ran out. I chose to stop or work. It always came down to those two choice. 

You stop or go backwards. Doesn’t really work for riding a bike, but it does in life.

You see, life is like bike riding. 

If you want to make it somewhere good, you must work. 

If there is a destination you have in mind, you have to expand energy to get there. 

Here is what we bought into with the American Dream. 

The whole purpose of our life’s work is to stop it. 

We work for the weekend. 

Then we work for vacation. 

Finally we work for retirement where we don’t have to work any more. It is all about not working. 

Why? 

Why is work a four letter word? 

Denise and I have a goal. That goal is to have our Lord say, 

“Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful in little things. I will put you in charge of great things. Enter into the joy of your Lord.” 

We want to arrive at the gates of heaven with sweat still on our faces from the effort of trying to reach the lost for His glory. 

Our purpose in life is not to coast until we reach the cemetery. 

It is to climb the next hill. 

Push on. 

Share Christ one more time. 

Mentor one more pastor. 

Help one more poor person. 

Feed one more hungry child. 

The thing about coasting, stopping or moving backwards is you no longer enjoy the trip. You lose purpose. The excitement of living is gone. You grow old.

We are not old. 

We are experienced. So, why waste all of our life experience on binging Netflix and sleeping in?

• Old happens when you focus on memories and forget about dreams. 

• Old happens when you look back at where you have been and stop looking to where you could be.

• Old happens when your life is full of achievements but empty of goals. 

• Old happens when you spend more time looking in the mirror at the past than you do out the front windshield at the future.

• Old happens when you try to hang on to what is and has been instead of pulling a preferred future into the present.

• Old happens when you lose your passion and vision. 

• Old happens when you are satisfied with the accomplished mission and do not take on a new one.

• Old happens when you coast to a stop instead of accelerate past go. 

We are not old. 

We are a little aged. 

We have ridden this world several times around the sun, there is no doubt. That simply means we are at a time of life where a myriad of experiences have, hopefully, brought us wisdom and maturity. 

Is this a time to retire, or is it time to re-fire? 

This is why we moved to Africa the year I turn 60. 

This is why we refuse to stop applying effort to life.

How about you? 

Who/What are you living for?

Where are you going and how will you get there?

If you don’t have a vision for the future,

you will just live in the past.