Sometimes I Wanna Go Get Me a Harley

 Sometimes I Wanna Go Get Me a Harley

Theology in the Trenches

by Kathleen Kjolhaug

 

The biker pulled up beside us as my husband rolled down the window to rid himself of a few sunnies at the stop light.  Balancing the black and orange Harley, the rider’s hair and head scarf flapped in the breeze.  Carefree and easy going his travels appeared as the snow was all but gone.  The sun reflected brightly in the mirror attached to his motorcycle and for a mere moment, I envisioned myself just as fancy free as he.

Perhaps looks are deceiving.  Perhaps they are not.  All I know is that I wanted what the scene represented.  To ride off into the sunset and not look back was calling my name.  Taking off in any direction I’d choose to set sail in appeared to offer hope after being bound by the long, cold, dark winter months of the Midwest. 

Spitting sunflower seeds upon the ground looked like second best in comparison, but caught in the moment, I grabbed me a few and chomped down hard.  I didn’t have the audacity to actually spit them out wad style, but I did manage to roll down my window flicking a few shell by shell as I watched the breeze take them away midair.

Streamers draped from the motorcyclist’s handle bars.  They were black.  I wondered if he ever desired to place a squeaky horn upon his handle bar in order to have a blast from time to time, or to secure a few baseball cards upon the spokes.  Even this biker had his limits, no doubt, and his freedom was within the confines of that which was acceptable in the world of Harleys.

Everyone’s world has limitations, and what appears as carefree or easy going may full well not be.  No doubt someone else was looking at us cruising on down the road thinking we had the world by the tail driving our BMW.  It looks good on the outside, but the high mileage oil leaking gas hog with the check engine light automatically signaling red is something quite different.  Although thankful for the safety it has offered, it hasn’t proven to be what we thought when we bought it at the used car dealership. 
Should have known we were in for a knuckle biter when asked to sign the papers upon a card table in the old shack of a building on the used lot.  It was sandwiched between two major car dealerships, tucked back off the beaten path.  Once spotting the car, we quickly test drove it and signed the purchase agreement.  As the old adage claims, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”  (Too good to be true, that is)  It was too good of a deal, and it hasn’t panned out, so to speak.

Getting back on track with this weaving story line, the bottom line is that oftentimes things aren’t always what they appear.  But, one can certainly escape into the trenches of the mind to get away for a while.  As I did just that by dreaming of my Harley, I pictured all of my adult children totally aghast at their mother cruising down the road on one of those babies.  I wondered if my husband would actually get on with me, not letting me ride off into the sunset without him.  My bet is that he’d at least follow with the BMW.  He’d follow alright, until Monday morning when he had to get back to work because Mondays are his busy days, and they need him there.

Proverbs 3:6 helps fill meandering hearts.  “In all our ways acknowledge Him, and He will make our paths straight.” 

When those paths round a curve, when thoughts spill upon pages mapping a story line hard to follow, when hearts yearn to capture in ways we do not understand, and when we are restless, Lord, trusting that those paths lead to You is a constant unspoken prayer. 

“Take my heart Lord, take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above” (Robert Robinson, 1757).  Amen.