No Motorcycles Allowed

Today I am going to share a story from my past that reminds me of God’s grace and my own stupidity. One summer while in college I was able to do a part time internship at my dad’s church in Minnesota.

One of my responsibilities for the summer was to lead Vacation Bible School. In the effort to leave a legacy I was always trying to think of ways to make it memorable for the kids.

I certainly didn’t disappoint!

At the end of every evening session we had two clowns who would come in and perform a skit to get everyone all riled up for their ride home. It was pretty obvious that I had no parenting experience.

Every night we attempted to find ways for the clowns to make the “Grand Entrance.” They had been known to appear in the baptistery, in the 2nd floor AV window and behind any and all props. In an effort to be creative one of the clowns suggested that he ride in on my motorcycle.

I loved the idea!

Imagine if you were a kid and the clown came roaring in on a motorcycle……

One problem – the clown had never operated a motorcycle. I decided to give him a lesson. After a few minutes he was ready to go……

The end of the night finally came and the clown rode up near the front of the church building and waited for his cue.

This is when everything started to take a turn for the worse.

The driver was a grown man and the clown on the back was a large grown man. The plan was to drive through the exterior glass doors and stop in the foyer just outside the second set of doors leading into the auditorium.

As he was idling on the 550cc motorcycle, the throttle stuck (it did this sometimes and all you had to do was give it some quick gas and then let off), and the signal came for him to make the appearance.

At the moment I hit the throttle to fix the idle, the driver let go of the clutch, bounced up a 4 inch curb, and speeded into the tile foyer. The large clown hopped off the back (probably fearing for his life) totally changing the balance, the bike hit the slippery tile just inside the doors and spun out.

It was at this moment that time stood still for me…….my motorcycle was careening out of control. The kids were going crazy…..and all that separated them from the motorcycle was glass.

By God’s grace the front wheel crashed into an oak beam just inches from the glass. It didn’t take long for reality to hit me hard with the smell of gas leaking and people running and the motorcycle still idling way too fast.

We finally got the bike turned off, picked up and dragged it outside (the front wheel didn’t turn due to the impact).

My first words trying to break the silence were, “That was close.”

If there was ever an understatement, that was it. I am still surprised that no one was seriously injured and the motorcycle missed the glass. Afterwards, my dad simply said that we probably shouldn’t try that entrance again.

This story relates to a few different things:
1. This Sunday, I will finish a mini-series on faith. We will look closely at the life of David and the affect of relational faith in a sterile world. We must have faith to do hard things, however we must be rational as well. Crashing a motorcycle at VBS is not martyrdom.

2. I will not be leading the children’s ministry any time soon at New Life. However, Big City is Coming soon to New Life. This is a very special church service just for kids. At Big City, they will meet the nicest people and hear about A GREAT BIG GOD who really loves people in the Big City.

I guess maybe that is why God has put us on the 4th floor, so when the weather is nice, I won’t be tempted to make an entrance on a motorcycle.