Bible Biker

My  Dad and I were riding the bikes on the Saturday of Easter weekend around the Gettysburg battlefields. It is one of those days I treasure, spending time with my Pop. I remember riding bikes with him in Valley Forge Park, close to where we lived, over 40 years ago. I recall him asking me if I had enough riding and I said I did. Soon after we packed up our bikes in the station wagon, it started to downpour and we sighed relief and smiled that our timing was correct. It was one of those small moments that life is comprised of that make it sweet.

Soon after hopping on the bikes in Gettysburg, I noticed that my crank arm was getting loose. So, I pulled out my socket wrench and tightened it. Thought the problem was solved. Not too long down the road, I had to stop again to tighten the crank arm. I think after about the third or fourth time of doing so, I examined the crank arm a little more carefully. It was cracked. It was only a temporary fix to tighten the nut, the casing was shot. Spelled out a long day of bike riding. Or bike-walking more accurately. We soldiered on....I jammed a small stick in-between the nut and the casing to keep the nut, although loose, from further unscrewing. That is about as sophisticated as I can get in my mechanical aptitude.

Then, I rode gingerly for the rest of day. Surprisingly, the temporary fix worked and the day was salvaged. But the problem had to be fixed long-term. On the way home, I hit a bike shop, The Cycle Works, owned by someone I know. He replaced the crank arm and gave me a great price to boot. Less than $ 15.00 total for parts and labor. And right quick, practically instantaneous. When you see free enterprise work like this, it is hard to argue with its soundness. Decisions are made at the point of commerce, no over-arching authority having to approve the transaction by reviewing forms in triplicate and taking days, weeks, months, years. Capitalism does not have to be cruel...it is just a tool that can be misused. I would argue that Socialism is inherently flawed. It assumes too much about human wisdom.

The genesis of the crank arm problem was treating my road bike (more of a hybrid) like a mountain bike. Being 240 pounds leads to an unusual amount of stress on bike parts, particularly if I am riding the bike over rocks and boulders, down hills. A crank arm is the epicenter of force. I am fairly certain that the small crack in my crank arm started while mountain biking and then the crack took several months to manifest itself fully from the inside out. So, what does this have to do with the Bible? Here goes the illustration. When the Bible is no longer considered inerrant historically and for all time, in faith and morals--instead only mythical literature--then we are putting far too much pressure and stress on the ethical teachings of the Scriptures. Not all stories in the world are equally true. I know that this is not politically correct. So, we have to jam short-term solutions into the crank arm of society through over-arching government not based on right but might--rather than self-government, it is government of the gods. We are making ancient Athens look orderly in comparison in its Zeus Inc. We have to go back to asserting the complete soundness of the Bible. For if we don't, the force has to come from somewhere else. In historical terms, anarchy or totalitarianism arise. Right exists.

Yet, a great deal of humility needs to be in place when asserting right. The line between righteous and self-righteous is thin. A Lincoln quote said it well on another monument in Gettysburg: