“It’s just like riding a bike.”
That’s easy to say if you know how to ride one; it really is something we don’t forget once we've learned. But memories of skinned knees, scraped elbows, and trying to stop a falling, moving vehicle with one outstretched leg remind us that learning to ride a bike isn't always easy.
Trying to teach my children to ride, I was faced with a humbling reality--this was something I really couldn’t teach them to do. I could offer tips on how to get started, how to sit with their weight in the center, how to pedal, brake, and brace for the inevitable fall--but I couldn’t teach my children to ride a bike. They would have to get the feel of it by themselves. The most I could do was run alongside, try to stop them from falling, and lend constant encouragement that at some point they were going to be able to do this.
How similar to our efforts to bring people to Jesus and the Church. We can’t give anyone a relationship with the Lord and a life of discipleship. We can introduce them, encourage them, give them tips on how to begin and to how grow in faith--but everyone has to ultimately find their own balance in order to ride with Jesus. But it’s so hard when we see someone we love falling-- or not even trying.
My children did learn how to ride a bike. In fact, I don’t know of anyone who sincerely tried being doomed to a life with training wheels. Everyone who tries eventually rides.
It’s the same with Jesus, because he seeks everyone, is available to everyone, and welcomes everyone. It can take time, but everyone who sincerely seeks truth--by whatever name they may happen to call it--eventually finds Jesus, because he is truth. It is Jesus who gives the gift of faith, and he gives to all who search.
Is there someone in your life you are teaching to "ride" with Jesus? Keep running alongside, keep encouraging. Someday--through Jesus' doing, not yours--it will be just like riding a bike.
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