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.