I love riding my motorcycle;  I also love reading about riding motorcycles, or talking about riding motorcycles (do you see a pattern here?). I’ve only been riding a little over three years, so I’m always trying to learn something new.

For example, this last weekend while we were in Panama City Beach for Thunder Beach, I made up my mind to learn to correctly use my front brakes.  I’ve been scared of them since the week I learned to ride. I was bringing Slick around the house, through dead leaves and wet grass, when I saw a riding toy in front of me. I couldn’t find the rear brakes and I wasn’t satisfied I could steer away from it, so I did the next thing I could think of – I grabbed the front brakes quite briskly. In fact, that’s how I learned Slick’s name,  because I was on the ground immediately, still astride the bike.  Grabbing the front brakes had stopped the front tire from rolling, but since I was in a turning lean, the rear tire just slid around to the side.

So I made my mind up this weekend to consciously use my front brakes every time I stopped; at first I used them with my rear brakes to stop, but I finally was comfortable just using the front brakes alone.

But back to my opening thoughts about learning new things- one of the hardest things for me to learn was to look where I wanted to go. There’s a riding rule that says “always keep your eyes on your way out”. When I’m making a U-turn (or hookin a U-ee as I like to say), I don’t need to look at the road near  my front tire; I need to be looking back the way I need to be going.  If I’m coming into a steep curve, I don’t need to look at the road and shoulder right in front of me- I need to keep my chin up and look out at the end of the curve.

Another story- on my first trip to Crestview, not long after I learned to ride, Randy took a left turn at the last minute; I tried to follow, but instead of following him on the street, my bike went off into the grass a couple of feet off the road. I panicked and looked at Randy (who hadn’t realized yet what happened) and I came back on the road.  If I hadn’t looked at the road, I would have kept driving down the ditch, and probably ended up in bad shape.

And it’s the same way in my Christian walk- I don’t need to look at the problems right in front of me, because they’re staying right there. I need to get my eyes on where I want to end up-on the other side, where the solution is.

So take it from me- if you’re headed somewhere and you know you don’t need to be there, get your eyes on where you want to be – there may be some excitement on the way back, but you’ll eventually get back on the right road.

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