S03E028, Coiled Potential Can Hurt! Andy B 2 Minute Video

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If you think of a spring, they’re fitted everywhere! From DVD players to cars, from bicycle derailleurs to pens and staplers, from watches to door handles!

We can find springs, in one form or another, almost everywhere. And they have a really simple job – to make something move in a predictable way.

On my bike, the part I fitted has a huge spring which forces the derailleur to be pushed away from the centre of the wheel. When you press the gear lever, it allows that spring to relax, jus a littler bit – a very set amount – and your chain is put on a lower gear.

The one I bought does exactly this. But in order to fit (the lazy way) I had to remove a couple of small bolts so I could save myself removing the chain just so I could fit the new part to my bike.

And that coiled spring, was held in a position of extreme tension so I could do that.

Unfortunately, the grip I had on it slipped, and the spring did it’s job of bringing the derailleur into it’s more natural position.

The issue came with the speed at which it did this, and the force that it carried…onto my thumb which acted as shock absorber…splitting my nail, causing me quite a bit of pain, ripping a glove – which then leaked blood until I dealt with my injury.

And this is exactly what happens in life. When we’re prevented from doing something, and haven’t been taught how to deal with coiled spring, we may well end up, as is so particularly, and tragically common, leaving home, drinking the alcohol we were always banned from having, or having sex with many people because we were never taught how to deal with the strong hormones that happen during puberty, or having some fun with a dangerous drug like cannabis – why so dangerous, because at Revd David Wilkerson repeatedly pointed out in his book “The Cross and the Switchblade” cannabis frequently leads on to much more dangerous drugs.

As parents, or simply as Christians in a church family, we have an obligation to help those younger than us to learn how to deal with coiled springs.

Because they’re everywhere, and if we do nothing more than ‘restrict’ we’ll be starting a journey of squeezing that spring. This, of course, doesn’t mean we allow or encourage experimentation with evil! We don’t let our children put their hands in a roaring fire so they can learn for themselves that it will burn them. That would be irresponsible!

If we prepare our children and young people to become independent, we can’t be surprised when they leave home and become independent!

I’ve been asked, many times, how parents can make sure their children ‘keep their faith’. And my answer is always the same, you can’t! That isn’t your job, but the work of the Holy Spirit, so help your children cultivate their own relationship with Jesus Christ.

Scripture teaches us that if we “teach your child the way to go, they won’t easily depart it”.

Just a thought...

Andy B

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So another Andy B 2 Minute Video. Erm, and I’m going to continue this series of replacing a bike part and what it’s taught me. And if you are looking at a video, you will see a plaster on my thumb. If you’re listening to this instead of, erm, watching it, or if you’re reading it, than what I actually got is a plaster on my thumb because Coiled Potential Can Hurt.

Now, er, we’ve had many, many examples of families and friends we’ve seen over the years, and they try and raise their children in a really, really good way, and they restrict them, and they stop them, from doing bad things.

Now on the surface of it, that sounds absolutely brilliant!

The problem when you squish, and you squash, and you suppress, and you continue to do that is, at some point, that spring is going to let loose.

Now I hurt my thumb. I’ve cracked the nail, because when I was trying to replace my derailleur on my bike, the coiled potential of that thing, as I was trying to squish it to undo a bolt to fit it, it carried back on itself. The spring, erm, recoiled, and it let go rather.

And it bashed my thumb. It actually cracked the nail and I had a bit of blood in me glove as I was trying to fix me bike.

Coiled Potential can Hurt, if you dunno what you’re doing with it.

And if we’re not careful, as parents, when we’re raising our children and we just stop them from doing everything, actually, what we’re doing, is we are creating a potential for a coil to hurt somebody. That spring’s gonna get squashed, squashed, squashed. And at some point it’s going to explode out.

And how does it explode out? Well we’ve seen that, in so many tragic cases that we’ve seen through ministry. When we were in ministry and when we were just in church, volunteering for different roles. And we’ve seen so many people hurt because they were stopped from doing things that were interesting, they weren’t trained how to deal with stuff, and when the spring suddenly exploded, normally because they leave home, all of a sudden they’re doing drinking, and they’re having sex with loads of people, and they’re doing drugs and they’re…well, it’s no surprise if they’ve never been taught how to deal with a coiled spring.

Now what’s mountain bikes and puberty got to do with it? Well, puberty, I’ve, I believe really clearly, is a great time for us to learn, as teenagers – all that hormonal stuff – that’s a great opportunity to learn self-control and trust in Jesus Christ! It’s a great opportunity.

Because all this stuff is going on. We feel all these things, and it’s the greatest opportunity you will ever have in your life – don’t waste it if you can use it. It’s the greatest opportunity to learn how to exercise self-control, how to overcome feelings?

“I feel like this” – so what, what does God say?

“Well, I want to do that” – what does God say?

This is the time that you can learn those things and learn to overcome them.

God is there!

Jesus is there praying for you!

What’s that got to do with my bike part? If we don’t take care of coiled springs, they will explode and hurt us.

And if we don’t train our children in the way they should go, they might hurt us, and definitely hurt each other, and God.

Just a thought, but just be careful of coiled springs!