My mom and dad were able to purchase an old bicycle built for two when I was middle school age. My friends and I had great fun peddling around on that. Sometimes my friend and I would ride the tandem to school together and we really enjoyed that.
Both people needed to put forth effort to peddle. If one got lazy and didn't do anything then the person who was peddling had to work extra hard at it. It wasn't fair to them because they were carrying the weight of both people.
If you were the person in the back you had to trust that the person in front was going to steer the thing right and not go crashing into something. I remember a trip that was taken down Mt. Baker. My dad had loaded all the bikes of our church youth group into a utility trailer and taken all the youth up to the end of the road as far up Mt. Baker as you could drive. Then everyone unloaded their bikes and rode down the mountain. I can't remember who was on the tandem, but I do remember the person who was on the back talking about how scared they were hurling down the mountain at top speeds and not being in control of the steering. They had to trust the person up front. It sounded a little hair-raising.
The Christian life can be like riding a bicycle built for two. In the realm of the church, we are to encourage our Christian brothers and sisters in their faith and Christian walk. When we all work together, each person putting in the effort to peddle to the best of their ability, much can be accomplished for God. But when someone sluffs off, it sucks energy from others. Granted, once in a while we need a little break and when we see someone who is struggling we can offer to peddle for them for a bit until they recover. This too is part of encouraging one another.
There is also another parallel I see here. God is the One up front steering the bike. We are on the back peddling along. God expects us to work at our Christian growth and sanctification. We aren't supposed to just sit back and let God do all the peddling. We have to participate.
There is yet one more thing I can see in this illustration. Sometimes God steers our bike down winding, steep paths and we get all upset thinking He is going to crash us. Even Paul felt like this sometimes.
2 Corinthians 1:8 For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our
trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above
strength, so that we despaired even of life. 9 Yes, we had the sentence of
death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises
the dead,
But did you see that last line? He felt like he had the sentence of death in him...it felt like God was going to steer the bike off the edge of rocky cliff to his death below! How often have I felt this way in my life!? How often have you felt like this too? We want to jump up to the front of the bike and take the steering wheel because we are sure we can steer the bike better. But Paul ends the verse by saying, "...that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead...". Can you trust God with the steering wheel of your bike?
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