Surprising Ideas: Motorcycles

Before I was even seated with my coffee, another “office” regular said to me, “I bet you wish you were on your motorcycle.”  Truer words never spoken.

What is it about motorcycles that captures the hearts and minds of so many?  The downsides are easy to see:  high vulnerability and risk on the road while being susceptible to the weather and elements with only two small contact patches keeping you stable on the asphalt.  Yet those very things also harmonize into an irresistible siren song of the open road:  “Come, ride me” it sings.

Riding a motorcycle allows one to enjoy the beauty of God’s creation that cannot be experienced any other way.  You can smell the fields (most of the time, a good thing except during manure spreading season), feel the temperature differences, and have unrestricted views of everything around you with no structure to impede the view.  Riding is the closest thing to flying you can experience without wings, being in a plane, or hanging from a parachute.  

There will be a perpetual debate about the relative goodness of motorcycles.  Undoubtedly, there are those who think they are a menace to everyone around them - and especially the people on them - and should be banned for the betterment of society.  On the other extreme are those who think bikes should be able to legally weave between cars and helmets should be optional.  

There is an underlying philosophical idea that is foundational to these discussions, although seldom is it identified and voiced.  What does it mean to “be good?”

The easiest definition of “good” is very personal:  it is what I like.  My perspective and preferences function as the measuring stick.  Given the diversity of personalities and life experiences, is it any wonder that what one person calls “good” another person calls “bad?”

Is there a better standard for “good?”  We can give the Sunday School answer and say, “God is good.”  We may even expand that into, “God is good and all that He does is goodness.”  I wholeheartedly affirm that statement.  The problem is it seems to address only the issues of morality and ethics.  We quote that in times of suffering in order to gain a sense of comfort and security.  That’s a good thing but it is also quite limiting.

What is the broadest scope of the idea, “God is good?”

When God created the world, He reviewed His work each day and commented that it was “good.”  At the very end He summarized it all saying it was “very good.”  Is this just a commentary on the quality of God’s work or is there something bigger going on?  Did His work pass the latest ISO qualification standards?

There is one time God said His creation was “not good” - after creating Adam.  Did God make a mistake?  Obviously not.  However, Adam could not fulfill the purpose for which He was created as God’s image-bearer without the presence and contributions of Eve.  This provides us with a good insight to the significance of “good.”

When we think “good,” our minds tend toward ideas of what is pleasurable (ice cream is good).  Riding a motorcycle is pleasurable.  When God says “good,” it is something completely different.  “Good” in God’s vocabulary means “that which has purpose and value.”  Each day in God’s creation was “good” because it served a divine purpose - even the weeds and mosquitoes.

In the daily grind, we are bombarded constantly with experiences to which we apply a filter deeming them as “good” or “bad.”  As our life-faith skills increase, we learn how to tweak that filter so the designation of “good” or “bad” is less dependent on our emotional reaction (pleasure vs pain) and more by looking for divine purpose and value.  

This can be an acid test for the maturity of our faith.  Are we satisfied with God’s goodness?  If God is God (and He is), do I embrace the processes through which He is working in my life?  Sometimes those processes are painful because of my choices (like having a root canal because I didn’t floss).  Sometimes the pain seems random.  Is God still good?

What about the other side of the coin - that first bike ride in the spring, enjoying a great time with friends and family, or accomplishing a task that is acknowledged and rewarded at work.  Do we remember that these things, too, are gifts of God’s goodness?  It is easier to say God is good but also easier to forget that God was just engaged in those moments.

Solomon put it this way:  When things are going well, rejoice.  When things are painful, remember these moments come from God as well.  This is what teaches us to depend on God (Eccl. 7:14;  Graham’s Paraphrase).

God IS good.  That doesn’t mean He always makes life comfortable.  His priority is our transformation and maturation in faith.  That can happen whether our spirit soars or our back aches.  What He is doing always has purpose and value.