RIDE ONSample

DAY 2

HOLD YOUR LINE

"HOLD YOUR LINE!" That was all I could hear from the man behind me as I tried my best not to crash into the cyclist next to me. I was participating in a local bicycle race on a beautiful Texas day when someone dropped their water bottle in a congested area of the road. Many bikes went down as the riders jerked their handlebars to swerve around the bottle. The water bottle was safe but the riders around it weren’t as lucky. 

“Hold your line” means maintaining your position and avoiding abrupt and erratic change. Several riders’ knee-jerk reaction was to swerve, which created chaos in the pack and made a bad situation even worse. 

Fast forward three years: My husband Jason and I are riding our bikes on another cloudless Texas afternoon. This time, our legs have been replaced by motors. He is riding an Indian Dark Horse motorcycle and I am on an Indian Scout. Beautiful bikes, beautiful day… what could go wrong?

When we arrived at our destination—a favorite lunch spot—the only available parking was in a five-story parking garage. Jason was ahead of me when he took the ticket that raised the barrier to let us through. I followed closely behind as the gate arm rose… but not close enough. Before I could react, the heavy metal arm came crashing down on my helmet, hit me hard, then went back up. I began to panic as I imagined the pain of being trapped underneath my 500-pound bike if I lost control of it. 

Through my growing fear, I heard that stranger’s voice screaming in my mind: “HOLD YOUR LINE!”

I didn’t want to overcorrect and fall and I also didn’t want to stall the bike, so I did the best thing I could. I held my line. I kept my gaze forward, shifted into second gear, and drove straight through.

I pulled into a parking space grateful that both my motorcycle and I were in one piece, unscratched and unhurt. Not only that, I was also a little bit smarter after this incident. 

When life hits you out of nowhere, the best thing you can do is hold your line: stay calm, keep your eyes focused on Jesus, and trust Him to get you through. More importantly, don’t make things worse by crashing into everyone around you–especially the ones who are closest to you.

Life hits us in many ways and it hurts every time. There is nothing we can do to change this. However, we do have the opportunity to choose how we handle the situation. One of the ways we can respond positively is to hide God’s word in our hearts by memorizing scripture. When we do this the Holy Spirit can warn, guide, and teach us by bringing scripture to our minds exactly when we need it. His voice calls to us and sometimes lovingly shouts at us for our own good, but we need to listen and obey. 

There is great reward—and much less pain—when we can hold our line and choose to respond and not react.