When I leave my neighborhood on my bike, I need to use the sidewalk for a block because London Blvd. is very busy. I make a sharp right hand turn at the end of Chesapeake Avenue and steer the bike through the handicapped ramp to the sidewalk. I get concerned that a car may be turning into the neighborhood.
Even though I have negotiated this little space hundreds of times over the years, my stomach tightens every time I bike through it, which is at least ten times a week. The second I start to get nervous, the bike begins to wobble, as my balance suffers because of my nervous thoughts.
Instead of concentrating on the many times I have safely traveled in this space, I choose to concentrate on the remote possibility that I may fall or somehow steer into oncoming busy traffic. In one second, I change from confidently peddling and enjoying my ride to a sick sense of dread. The moment that my thoughts focus on a bad outcome, my body does its best to help me out with that.It suddenly hit me on Sunday as I rode my bike past that very spot that my situation is a metaphor about many things in my life. If I proceed forth in the confidence that God is with me and I have all I need to succeed, I do well. When I allow doubt about my abilities or God’s provision to assail me, I begin to wobble on that narrow road that I’m supposed to be traversing. God wasn’t just throwing out random thoughts in Phil 4:8 when He told us to concentrate on what is excellent or praiseworthy, noble and true. He was telling us how to hit the road, so to speak.
