Mike_Shields
It’s hard to remember when I haven’t been riding a motorcycle.
Bikes have been a part of my life for over 24 years. I’ve seen agood part of the states and have logged about 200, 000 miles on twowheels.
It always felt good when ever I was riding and all tensions wouldfall away. I use to call my bike “my psychiatrist” because when ever Iwas tense or ran in to a problem I could not or didn’t, want to face, Iwould go for a ride.
About 6 years ago I began to notice that the high, after the ride,did not last as long as it used to. I was quick to anger and restlessa lot of the time. The rides were ok, but afterwards I was back to theold self.
One day, while waiting around for my wife to finish shopping, ayoung man asked if he could ask me some questions. I had nothingbetter to do so I said sure. The first question was “did I believe inGod”. Well I had thought of that from time to time and consideredmyself sort of an agnostic. There was a possibility of God, but so farI wasn’t sure. Then he asked me “do you think you will go to heaven when you die?” After a second of thinking I said “sure” to which he replied “why?” Well I listed all the good things I had done such asbeing a good neighbor, helping out people when it was needed, I had notdone any serious hurt to anyone and was pretty friendly to everyone,you know, I was a fairly good guy. All the time in the back of my mindwhile I was saying these things, thoughts were beginning to run in myhead about how I had been through two divorces, had ripped off myemployer of some things because I figured he owed me and he couldafford it. I was also into looking and collecting pornography of allsorts even though it hurt my present wife to see it. I also wasn’tbeing the best father to my son for I was either working or out ridingand didn’t find the time to spend with him as I should.
After that he said “let me show you something” and proceeded to showme in the Bible where it said that all people are sinners and that weall fall short of what GOD expects of us. That the wages or reward ofsin is death. That meant that all of us die because we are sinful andthat no matter how good we think we are, we don’t meet God’s measure.To die, because of sin had a deeper meaning also, in that death meant aseparation from God forever. That after we die here, there is ajudgement in which all of us stand before God. Those who have sinnedare cast out to the lake of fire (hell) and the others live in heavenwith Him.
“Wait a minute” I said. “I thought all were sinners therefore all would be in hell.” “That’s true” he said, “but God made a way out forus and that out is Jesus”. He started to explain about how God came toearth in human form as Jesus and that he died on the cross for oursins. This was the way out.
At that moment we got interrupted and I had to go. I was stillconfused about what he meant about Jesus and how he was the way out. Italked with my wife about what I had heard and asked her how she feltabout Jesus and she told me that it wasn’t any of my business. Thatwas a slap in the face. I asked other people I knew about this, butthey just laughed and said to forget it and I did, for two years.
In August of 1980 I was going through my third divorce, trying tofind a place to live with my oldest son, who could stay with me ifcertain conditions could be met. One being that I would get on firstshift so I could be home when he got out of school. The others werethat I find a place near his mother and that someone would be able towatch him during the time I left for work and when school started. Ihad two weeks left to meet the provisions necessary and nothing wasworking out. My boss would not let me go on first and I tried totransfer to another department, but there was not enough work there tolet me in for at least a couple of months. I had not found a place tolive and had gone so far as to put an ad in a few papers for weeks butnothing became of it. I was desperate, mad, upset, frustrated, andunhappy. With nothing else to do I decided to go to a bike rally inIndiana to help me relax. I usually went there every year with somefriends for fun and to get away from it all. I thought that would perkme up, though more and more I was finding that after ride I felt thesame as before I left. Anyway, the Indy rally was not what it had beenin the past and I was not enjoying it as before. Much of what I wasgoing through was loading up on me and the weight of it was too much.As I was sitting around I noticed a paper and started to read it. Inoticed that the stories were strange, covering topics that I had notheard about, such as people disappearing.
I asked a friend what these stories were all about. He suggested Italk to a person who was a representative of the Christian MotorcyclistAssoc. (C.M.A.) and perhaps he could help me. I didn’t know how hecould, but I went over there to where he was and before I knew it I hadtold him of all I was going through. To my surprise he said there wasan answer to all my problems and asked if I were interested to knowabout it. You would have to be a fool to say no, so of course I saidyes. All of a sudden I was hearing something I had heard before. Aboutsin and how it was like a weight, dragging me down, and how because ofsin, I was separated from God. I heard again about death, thejudgement, hell, heaven and the way out. This time I understood whatwas meant by Jesus dieing on the cross for my sins.
After hearing all that I decided to turn my life over to Jesus andat that point things happened that were unreal. First was a feelingthat a great load was lifted off my shoulders and a great joy came uponme. When I got home I burned all the porno magazines I had collected,much to everyone’s surprise. I then told my wife about what happened.To my disappointment she laughed and thought I was nuts. The next daywhen I went to work I was told that could start first shift the nextweek. That night I received a call mentioning that the person had seenmy ad a month ago and wanted to know if I still needed a place to live.He had a place right next to the school that my son was to go to. Therent turned out to be just what I could afford. I was then introducedto a neighbor that watched children in the neighborhood and would beglad to watch my son from 6;00 am until school and feed him breakfasttoo. I believe God set this all up to show me his greatness and hislove. So much has happened in these few years that I would have towrite a book to contain it all. There is so much more to tell, but Ihope this will give you enough of my testimony. This was edited from alarger tract I was writing which I will upload to you if you areinterested. I probably need someone to proof it anyway to be sure theit runs in a way that will attract the lost.
Mike Shields