S04E016, Mud, Bicycles and the Cycle of Life, Andy B 2 Minute Video

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When we go cycling, things can stick to our tyres. If you go mountain biking, you might end up with plenty of mud liberally applied to your bike. And if you’re really unfortunate, you’ll end up with a clay/grass mix that will stick to the outside of your tyre, and weight your bike down enough that you struggle up hills you can normally cycle up, without much effort or thought.

Well this is exactly what happened to Jo, and her bike, when we were out Mountain Biking one day.

It seemed as though the weight of her bike had been doubled! And holding a pile of it in my hands, after I’d scraped it off her bike, I could easily believe it.

In life, we do things that push us away from God. Those things – those sins – become like weights, pushing us down, making our shoulders feel heavy.

But, Jesus said His burden was light, so if we’re feeling heavy, there’s a good chance we simply need to go to God, say sorry for the last set of things we’ve done and not said sorry for, that are acting like giant weights on top of our shoulders.

Just a thought...

Andy B

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So the other day, Jo and I were out Mountain Biking. And we've had lots of dry weather. Now we've got lots of wet weather. It's the joys of a British, erm, weather system. It's quite fun!

But we're getting around our bike, and Jo's saying "cor, it just feels really hard work". 

And we look at Jo's bike. And there's mud on both of ours. We're going through puddles, and, it, we're having great fun. We're covered in mud!

But Jo's tyres? They've not just got mud on them. They've got this weird clay thing with grass. It's like a brick, kind of a fabric, but it's actually stuck to the outside of the wheels, er, outside of the tyres on both sides, front and back.

So I get a stone and I start scraping this off for her. And I, I hold some of this stuff in my hand, and it's really, really heavy, and it's sticky stuff!

For some reason my bike didn't have a problem, Jo's did. I don't really understand that. But what I do understand is that Jo was saying "it's really hard work up the hills". And when we stopped to look at her bike, she was carrying a lot extra weight. Because the tyres were, literally, covered in mud.

And, actually, it was stopping the stuff going through the, through the, through the frame, through the frame of the wheel. And it was just heavy, and sticky, and so we get the mud off.

And then she's like, "oh wow, this is a bit better. This is a bit lighter."

And it was enough weight that it was actually very noticeable for her.

But when I'm thinking about mud, and bicycles, and all that, there's an obvious similarity between that and our sin, and our dealing with life.

Because as you go through things, through life, stuff sticks to us, and, just like that sticky mud on Jo's tyres, sin sticks to us, and it weighs us down. It makes life difficult.

As Jo's turning those pedals she's not just getting herself and the bike, she's getting herself, her bike and half the field is being dragged up behind her. That's what it felt like to her. It's really hard work!

But when we do stuff wrong and, it gets in between us and God, it's like a weight on our shoulders, crushing, and pressing us down, into the ground.

And it's one of two things, depending on how you look at it.

It's either really upsetting and depressing. And why can't you get rid of this?

Or. It's a really good warning that something is wrong, because we feel heavy.

And Jesus says that His burden for us is light.

So, if you're feeling heavy today, why not make sure you get yourself right with God? Because it could easily be you've got some sin in your life that God wants you to let go of, so you can feel lighter with him. 

Just a thought.