Not Enough Horsepower

Did you hear the story about the two guys who tried to jump the widest part of the Grand Canyon on motorcycles?

Seems these two guys starting arguing about who had the guts and the horsepower required to make the jump over the canyon.  One bragged about his Screaming Eagle V-Rod and the other was sure that he could make the jump on his Gold Wing.  On the day of the event they both showed up at the rim of the canyon still convinced that they could do better than the other guy.  They backed off a quarter of a mile from the rim and at the drop of the flag dumped the clutch and raced toward the canyon like the Coyote chasing the Roadrunner.  Rooster tails of dust rolled from the wheels as they approached.  Of course, no offense to the Gold Wingers, but the V-Rod immediately took the lead and hit the rim of the canyon several seconds before the Wing Nut.

As gravity and drag caught up with the V-Rod, he looked back at the Gold Wing several feet behind.  As they fell toward the bottom of the canyon, the V-Rodder yelled over his shoulder. “See, I told you I could beat you!”  The moral of the story- makes no difference how fast you are- if you can’t make it to the other side, you are going to both end up in the same place.

Permit me to throw some spiritual light into this little simple story.  On this journey of life that we all travel, we are all headed toward the same destination.  Makes no difference how good you are, how much money you got, or how much horsepower is carrying you down this road, at some point you are going to come to the rim of the canyon.  Jesus said that there is a great gulf, or canyon separating us from this life and his Heavenly Kingdom.  Try as we might, none of us has the horsepower, or the speed to make it to the other side on our own.  You can twist the throttle, pop the clutch, or boost the nitro, but you just ain’t going to make that jump on your own.

Some people look at that gulf as just too wide to span and decide there is no need to try.  They just idle through life, stop and smell the coffee, and amble along as if there is no end to the highway.  Others race through life, burning up the highway, and live like there is no tomorrow.  But no matter how you cut it, the highway does end.  No matter how you ride, the canyon is just across the next hill, around the next curve, and the bridge is out!

The Apostle Paul says that if all we had to face was that deep canyon at the end of this journey, life would be so miserable it would hardly be worth living.  It’s true that we only pass this way once, and then it’s over.  But it is over, only as we know it now.  All of us, regardless of how we ride this journey, are going to face eternity one day.  Sad truth is, we can’t  get to the other side on our own.

Jesus told His disciples a parable one day that explained the difference between those who tried to make the jump under their own power, and those who trusted God and His Power.  Two men went into the temple to pray.  One man was a Pharisee or a person who was supposed to be one of the most righteous of his day.  The Pharisee stood and prayed with himself and told God what a great person he, the Pharisee was. He reminded God of how he was so faithful to pay his tithes, how much he fasted to get on God’s good side.  The Pharisee spoke of all the great things he had accomplished on his own and therefore God should be greatly impressed.  This dude was trying to jump the canyon on his own horsepower, on what he had accomplished.

Jesus continued with the parable.  He said the other man was a Publican, or employee of the Roman government, and knew he could accomplish nothing for God on his on; in fact the Publican beat his breast, cried out to God for forgiveness, and asked God to be merciful to him, just a sinner without a chance to make the jump on his own.   Jesus concludes the parable by saying, “ I can tell you that the Publican went home justified (just as if he had never sinned) before God, but the Pharisee, the religious man went away with nothing as far as God was concerned.

We are all faced with that challenge today, as we ride toward the end of the road.  When we get to the canyon, what we have done won’t make a diddly-squat worth of difference.  Unless we have come to Jesus, asked Him to forgive our sins, and trust what he has done to atone for our sins, we won’t have the horsepower to make the jump.

Think about this today.  If you hit the rim of the canyon, are you riding with Jesus to give you the boost to get you over, or will you fall to the bottom eternally separated from God?  The choice is ours.

In the Wind,

Double D