You Know...

First Watch is our men’s ministry at Irving Bible Church. We meet at 06:22 AM on Friday Mornings. We typically begin with a movie clip, followed by a brief message in a large group setting before breaking off into our small groups.

One of the things we have come to expect in our large group setting is the really bad joke. These are the kind of jokes that are so bad, they’re actually funny, and elicit laughter and the requisite number of groans.

There was one particular joke a few weeks ago that definitely fit into this category, yet was very poignant to the message, and has lingered in my mind. I’ll do my best to recollect it and explain. Here goes…

A lady walks into a business where the proprietor owns a parrot. As the lady walks past, the parrot looks at her, then exclaims, “Hey lady, you’re ugly”! The lady turns, visibly shaken, and storms out of the store.

A week later, the lady returns, and the same thing happens. The parrot looks at the lady and squawks, “Hey lady, you’re ugly”! This time the lady seeks out the proprietor to complain. The owner chastises the parrot, explaining that she’s in fact a valued customer, and if it happens again, there would be hell to pay. The parrot apologizes to the lady, and the owner assures her it won’t happen again.

A few weeks later, the lady returns. Upon seeing her, the parrot calls out, “Hey lady”, then after looking her over, quietly states, “you know…”

Wow. After the laughter and groans subside, you realize just how deep the underling message runs.

How many times have we peered into the mirror, and let those doubts and unspoken lies slowly creep into our psyche. “You know…”

“You’re out of your league”
“Everyone sees right through you”
“You’re not fooling anyone”
“You don’t belong”

Over time, these perceptions, if not checked, have the potential to become our reality. No doubt, in the sea of humanity, untold thousands are adrift, capsized by this condition.

If only we could see past our distorted perceptions and see ourselves as we truly are, an unfinished masterpiece, pliable clay, still being shaped and molded by the hands of the master.

The problem is, the more time we spend gazing inward upon this misconception, the more rigid and unusable we become. Maybe that’s why our focus is supposed to be outward. Reference the Jesus Creed…

"Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these"

I’ll bet the more time we sincerely spend directing our focus on others through this prism, the greater our inner perceptions will become. It’s definitely worth a try.

Stepping away from the mirror…

Welcome to the Family II !

A few weeks after I took ownership of my new bike, I received an unexpected package in the mail from Harley Davidson.

When I opened it up, I found a Harley Owners Group (HOG) patch, a pin, touring handbook, a magazine and a plaque. The plaque was very nice, and contained an image of my bike along with the VIN number, and a message,
“Custom Made for David Poe”.

Wow, how cool is that! Right away it make me feel welcome, like part of the family. And upon further retrospection, I realized that my only qualification for receiving this, was that I now owned a Harley. I wasn't asked pre-qualifying questions like, what neighborhood I rode my Harley in, what I wore when I rode my Harley, or where it would be kept. Just that I now owned one.

I thought it was a really nice touch, and it got me to thinking, why can't we be more like that as a church, or more simply...Christians in general.

It seems at some point, we feel the need to qualify people based on our own defined categories. Where do you live? Where do your kids go to school? What do you do? What do you drive? Where did you go to school? Based on their answers, we somehow subconsciously determine their worthiness. Why can't it just be good enough that we are all broken, hurting and need Jesus? I'd like to think that I could somehow just see everything on this level...but I don't.

There's an old saying that the average person can find more comfort in the local bar than in the local church. On some levels, I agree with this, but if the local bar and a motorcycle company can do this...so can we.

Going forward, each time I ride my bike, I'll do my best to remember this and how welcome it made me feel. May I always strive to treat others the same.

Welcome to the Family!

I got my first motorcycle for my 14th birthday. About a month later, Mark and Todd, the twins that lived across the street got their motorcycles. From that moment, the adventure was on.

Almost every day, we would mount up on our steel horses and off we would ride. We would head, to what we called “the woods”, a large undeveloped area of our subdivision. We would twist through the trees, fly up and down the hills, explore new areas, but most of all...we would ride.

Over time, memories have a way of turning into stories, and sometimes these stories develop into legends. To me, these stories are legendary. For the better part of a year, most all of our free time was spent on the backs of our motorcycles. Then, as I was approaching 15, my motorcycle suffered a catastrophic engine failure. The ride was over.

The next year slowly evolved into a learner's permit, followed by a driver's license. In short time, the legendary era of the motorcycle gave way to driving, cars, and girls.

Time went by, but there are three distinct memories that I kept from my motorcycle days. The first is the feeling of turning that ignition key and seeing that bright green indicator light, signaling the bike was in neutral. For the longest time, that green was my favorite color, and to this day triggers those memories. The next is pulling in the clutch in and pressing that gear lever down into first. As the gear would engage, you could feel the bike tighten up beneath you. And the last is that feeling, at the start of every ride, when you pull your feet off the ground and up to the foot pegs for the first time. It's the moment you know that “it's on”!

Over 30 years have passed since then, but Ive often looked back, longingly on those memories and wondered if they could be re-captured. Would the experience still stir my soul the same way. You know, it's like that perfect vacation you try to re-create, but yet seldom lives up to the memory. Try driving through your old childhood neighborhood. The memories come flooding back, but looking around, you know it's not the same. Just memories...

About six years ago, a friend of mine at work asked if a few of us would be interested in a weekend motorcycle riding class. Of course I said yes! Early on the first day, performing a very slow speed turn, I made the mistake of looking down to see if I had cleared the cone...and dropped the bike. They said don't look down, because where you look is where you will go, and sure enough, that's exactly what happened.

I went on to pass the course and get my motorcycle license, but that fall left a gash in my confidence. Shortly after, we moved to New York for a couple of years and then back home to Texas.

Nothing further happened with motorcycles, partly due to that small gash in my confidence, allowing doubt to slowly drip in. This year I decided the time had come, and signed up for another class at our local Harley dealership. The class was this last weekend, and was incredible. The class chemistry and instruction was amazing, and the damage to my confidence has been repaired.




One of my favorite quotes by Benjamin Franklin:

“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”

While I hold to this truth, I think the same can be said about motorcycles. I know our role here is that of Ambassador, as we are to be representatives of eternity; but I truly believe that we are also created for pleasure and God wants us to be happy while we are here.

I love to picture in my mind, Jesus and His close friends, sitting around a campfire laughing, cutting up, talking over the events of the day, and just relishing the moment. I know these times were cherished by all, but especially Jesus, knowing His mission and what lied ahead. Just one of the many wonders of His creation and I love that.

So, was I able to re-capture the magic? Well, if my ride today was any indication...YES, and I'm well on my way to creating new stories of legend.

For those of you stirred by this story, and you know who you are, I highly recommend taking the new rider's course. Here's a quote that was in my log book that pretty much sums it up...

“Four wheels move the body.
Two wheels move the soul.”

Well, that's another view from life's sidecar...this time taken from the back of my Harley!