I ride my bike to work nearly every day of the week, albeit today I decided not to pedal through the rain. Overall, it's pretty safe. It's pretty tame. Metro Buffalo pales to the chaos of urban center cities around the world where cycling in traffic is a dangerous activity requiring the rider to risk his life every day. Because of snow removal in the winter months, our roads have wide shoulders and additional buffer space between my handlebars and a fast moving rear view mirror.  

Occasionally, even though I'm usually left well enough alone, there are certainly times that a driver will lose track of me, and I get pushed over to the side by a stiff breeze, or get cut off by a motorist making an abrupt right turn into a parking lot or driveway without making any signal to alert the maneuver. Usually, I can navigate around disaster without too much trouble by jumping up on a curb, or ditching the bike into someone's front yard. Nine times out of ten, the motorist turns pale white when they realize how close they came to me. They are concerned and apologetic. They realize they were distracted in some way from their main task. They realized what they were really missing going doing the road.

The Apostle Paul writes: Stay alert, with your eyes wide open in gratitude. Don't forget to pray, that God will open doors for telling the mystery of Christ. Now, to my knowledge, Paul never pedaled a bicycle or commuted to work in a prius or a pickup truck.  However, I do believe that he would remind us to keep our eyes alert when driving from place to place for locations, and people, and situations that might be an open door for telling the mystery of Christ. I do believe that we can be people who are prayer walking, prayer bicycling, and prayer driving so that the Good News of the Gospel can go out once again to our friends, family, and communities. Do you know what you're missing on the road?

Pastor Milo 

@milowilson

I saw my neighbor taking pictures of a kayak in the front yard yesterday. He was positioning it in a way where he could capture the sun setting through the trees, over the bow of the boat. Really, it was a pretty cool shot! This is isn't all that unusual for Aaron. He often buys and sells hiking and biking equipment through online postings of various sorts, and I'm certain this photo will capture someone's attention who wants to buy a kayak and paddle off into the sunset.

Aaron Coe and Dustin Willis authored a great book by the title "Life on Mission" where they share a great insight about what it really looks like to be intentional about relational evangelism. One of the central messages learned from the book is that everyone is a missionary, whether you are a plumber, a school teacher, a doctor, a student, a retired person, or a stay-at-home mom or dad. Isn't missionary work only to be done by professionals, way over there, on the other side of the world? No. Probably not. When I saw my neighbor taking snapshots of the kayak, I was reminded immediately of something that happened a couple years back that changed things between us from that day on.

You see, Aaron and I live directly across the street from one another. In fact, our driveways are so perfectly aligned with one another, that we have even accidentally backed into each other. Aaron knows I am a cycling enthusiast, he sees me ride to work most days of the week, rain or shine. He knows I'm a parent, and he sees me standing at the bus stop with the kids each morning. He knows I'm a pastor, he watches me come and go from church on Sundays. But does he know I love Jesus? Does he see the Fruit of the Spirit of love, joy, peace & self control in me?

There was a knock at the door... With his vehicle loaded and kayaks on the roof, Aaron, frustrated, shared with me that his millennial college students were too busy to spend the afternoon on the water with him as previously planned, and would I like to go with him instead? With four active kids and a demanding church schedule, dropping everything to go was anything but easy. But, when I did the 3-4 hours we spent together that day ended up being a really great time. We talked about a number of things, but hopefully the main thing he heard from me (while unspoken) was that God's love always has room. God's ear is always ready to listen. God's schedule always has time for him. This is one recent example where I feel I lived Life on Mission. What about you? Need some ideas for yourself? Give this book a read!          

Pastor Milo

@milowilson

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