August 28, 2000

CYBERCOLUMN:
Motorcycle man Carl knows peace
Don't blink...
___By John Duncan
___ I'm sitting here under the old oak tree by the lake. On this early morning, the August heat prepares to bake the earth into hard clay. A light breeze blows reminding me that the Spirit blows where it wishes (John 3:8). The yellow grass longs to drink down water that stays stuck in the sky. White foam drifts on the shores of the lake. A teenage jet-skier whizzes by, his turbo prop wide open. And a bird broods and sits on the barbed wire

JOHN DUNCAN

nearby.
___I am reminiscing today about motorcycle man Carl. He stopped by my office one day. His wind-blown hair and filthy clothes gave the appearance of a weather-beaten man who had been on a troublesome journey. His leather coat and scuffed boots added to his roughneck aura. His wrinkled face could not compare to his battered heart as he shared his story.
___ "Preacher, can I see you for a minute?" he asked as he stood at my office door.
___ "Sure," I replied, knowing that when stragglers show up at church and ask for a minute they usually take more than a minute and that my guard better be up because stragglers often spring well-spun stories for eager preachers anxious to hear.
___ "Preacher," he began as he sat in a chair across from me, "I've been to New Mexico and back in the last three days. Been riding my motorcycle. My wife left me. I've been riding and thinking, riding and thinking, and I don't know what to do. I can't get no peace."
___ "Um, um," I answered in deep theological tone. "You don't know what to do?"
___ "That's right, preacher. I don't know what to do."
___ For years, I've tried to figure out why some people come to see me in my office. Motorcycle man Carl put it plain and simple that day: "You're the one to come to when I don't know what to do."
___ I guess that makes me the "preacher of I don't know what to do." Come to think of it, I didn't know what to do with Carl, either.
___ "Tell me about your wife leaving you," I intoned as I put on my imaginary counseling cap.
___ "Said she don't love me any more," Carl responded in his stylistic, get-to-the-point conversation.
___ "What do you need? Do you need food or money?" I quizzed as I placed the imaginary minister of benevolence hat upon my head. "We can always get you food, you know. You shouldn't go away hungry."
___ "Preacher, thanks but I don't need food or money. I really just want my wife back, but she says she's not coming back," Carl moaned as a tear streaked down his cheek.
___ "Have you thought about giving your life to Jesus," I softly spoke. After all, he was calling me "Preacher."
___ "You know, I don't know why I came here, but I would like to give my life to Jesus," Carl said as he wiped a tear from his eye.
___ Right there in the church on the road that goes right by the lake, I shared the Roman Road to salvation, and Carl gave his life to Jesus. He prayed to receive Christ, walked out of the church and rode his motorcycle home. For one month every Sunday and Wednesday, Carl did not miss church. Our church baptized him, and we rejoiced in his new-found life. Then Carl disappeared.
___ This happens in life if you stick around the church long enough--the heat scorches the earth; the wind blows in the early morn; the grass sheds its green shade for yellow; foam drifts on shores; jet skiers take flight at break-neck speed; birds sit and brood; and church members disappear. Sometimes they don't know what to do, so they just disappear.
___ Six months later, as I studied in my office, the phone rang. I answered the phone. Carl spoke with an excited voice: "Preacher, I just wanted to call and tell you that I'm in North Carolina. I moved here to be close to my family. I found a good Christian woman who loves the Lord. And we got married. We go to church. I've never been happier since that day in your office. I'm at peace now. I've got peace."
___ We chatted, and as I hung up the phone, it was as if I heard the faint whisper of Jesus, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid" (John 14:27).
___ And so, when I don't know what to do, I quietly ask God to give peace. As the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins says,
___ "And when Peace here does house, he comes with work to do, he does not come to coo, He comes to brood and sit."


___ John Duncan is pastor of Lakeside Baptist Church in Granbury, Texas, and the writer of numerous articles in various journals and magazines

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