One Score and Four Years Ago...

To break out of a cycle sometimes you need to break a (bi)cycle. That is what it took me four years ago today to recognize how dependent I am upon God. The fresh experience with grace, the grace of just being alive is something to marvel about. Finding myself with a broken bike, shoulder, ribs, helmet and hip I landed on the pavement, no place to look but up. Not able to depend on myself I was forced to depend on family, friends, and mostly on God. Grace is the only thing in general that breaks the cycle that demands justice. There is nothing new under the sun the preacher of Ecclesiastes states. Everything goes in cycles. We know this to be true with styles, but even more so, the root of the problems that man has experienced since the beginning of time have been the same as they are in 2012. We seek revenge for wrongs and payment for what is due. But when we receive grace that cycle ends. Meaning returns. Time no longer goes in meaningless cycles but Jesus comes in, solves the sin problem and then we are able to confidently travel through linear time where there is a hope of future glory at the end of the story. Pride still sometimes gets in my way of recognizing that my strength only comes from the LORD but when pride creeps in to my life then I have also experienced grace in new ways. Now the score (scar) that I have from the incision is still there to remind me not to forget. Four years and so much has changed but so much is the same. I still ride bikes, I still run, and I still have to daily remember the giver of life and trust the master surgeon. Yet, because of this experience I am forever changed. So I will not take for granted the ability to leap this leap year.