God Loves Dudes on Bikes

     Here's another wild story of how God wants to interact with us in our everyday lives.  On August 19th I met with some pastors in the area for our weekly prayer time in the morning.  As I was driving home, I noticed on one of the busier street corners in Harrisonville a guy on a bike messing with his cell phone.  It was obvious that he had spent a lot of time on this bike.  He had all of his personal travel belongings attached to the front and rear-end of it.  I felt like I should go and talk to him, but kind of battled the idea in my head.  Finally I decided to park on a side street and approach him.  I had to cross the intersection twice to get to where he was sitting.  I was wondering if he would see me approach and try to take off, but he didn't really get a chance.  As I stepped up the traffic cleared and I had a straight shot to him. 
     I walked up to him and said, "Hey man how's it going?  I saw you sitting here and I thought to myself, 'this guy looks way too interesting to pass by.'" 
     I learned that his name was John, and that he had been riding that bike for four months straight.  He had been to every state west of Missouri during that time.  He was riding back to his home state of Ohio and needed to cover another 100 + miles before nightfall to get to his next stop.  I was extremely impressed.  The furthest I had ever ridden on a bike was from my folk's house to Dairy Queen and back (about 2 blocks).
     I asked way too many questions about his money:  how much cash he had on him, what his credit card limits were, etc...He started to get really uncomfortable, so I decided it was a great time to start talking to him about the Lord.
     I asked him, "What do you think about all day while you're on your bike?"
     He kind of chuckled and said that he thinks about a lot of stuff.  He said that he had been really interested in Buddhism recently, and that he spent much of his time pondering it.
     I replied, "That's cool man.  Buddhism is starting to get more and more popular in this country these days.  Do you know much about Jesus?"
     He said that he was framiliar with Jesus and that he had kind of grown up in Christianity.  We talked about some other interesting things after that, and at one point I said, "Yeah man.  A good life boils down to just two things:  loving God, and loving people."
     He immediately responded, "Why loving God?  Isn't it enough just to love people?"
     Right then one of the yellow Harrisonville street worker trucks pulled up to us, and a gal with long blonde hair hopped out.  She walked right up to John and held out her hand.  She said to him, "I felt like the Lord wanted me to give this to you."  In her hand was a wad of a few dollar bills.  (Can you believe it! God knows how to do some amazing things doesn't He?!)
     John refused the money saying, "I feel like the Lord wants me to give it back to you."  It was a pretty funny scene to watch.  The poor gal got back into her truck with kind of a rejected look on her face.  As she was leaving I put my hand on John's shoulder and said to him, "That's why you love the Lord man, because He loves you and He created you."  I continued, "Do you think it was just a coincidence that God sent two different people to come and talk to you at the same time?"
     He said, "Well I just think it's because of where I am.  I'm in Missouri now."  I guess he thought that everyone in Missouri is a Christian, and that all of us are bold enough to walk up and talk to a stranger.
     I quickly responded, "No way man...I've lived in this town since I was 2 years old and I've never seen anything like that happen before."
     I blessed him on his journey because I knew he was eager to get back on the road.  I got his information before he left.  He actually has a blog about his journey: www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/westcyclestory if you want to check it out.  It's really interesting.  That's where I got the picture at the top of the post from. 
     This was an amazing encounter--of course with a very interesting person, but also with an amazing God.  I love to see how God works.  He says, "If you seek Me, you will find Me."  He's not hiding in some ditch somewhere along the road.  If you look for Him, he promises you'll find Him.  I think it's amazing how I so obviously recognized God in that interaction, but John considered it more of a coincidence.  I guess the opposite is somewhat true of that above verse too.  If you refuse to seek Him, you'll never find Him.
     The great news for John is that God is relentlessly pursuing him.  I read in his blog that another couple in Yellowstone National Park talked to him about Jesus just 2 months ago. 
     I praise you Lord.  I thank you for making such a beautiful man like John.  Surround him with Your people.  Surround him with Your Spirit.  Set him apart for Your glory, and I pray that he spends every day of the rest of his life passionately loving You, Mighty King.  Amen.