Learning to Ride
I don’t really remember learning how to ride a bike. I have vague memories of being in front of our house on our dead-end street, trying short distances with no training wheels… and then, suddenly, I could do it.
Years later, at Christmas with Sarah’s family, her brother Josh had bought a kid’s bike for our nephew and was removing the pedals. I didn’t understand why, but apparently, there was a growing idea that if we teach kids to ride a bike without focusing on pedaling, they will find their balance naturally as they coast. Then you add the pedals back on, and suddenly they can ride.
Years later again, when we had kids, we lived in Dallas on very busy streets. Our kids got bikes for Christmas, but we never felt good about trying to teach them to ride without training wheels because everywhere we went… there were so many cars and people.
If I’m being totally honest, Sarah and I probably worked too much during that season and didn’t give proper time and attention to spending afternoons teaching our kids to ride a bike without training wheels.
Then, about five years ago, that all changed.
Suddenly, there were empty streets and parking lots. Quiet sidewalks and alleys.
And we had time to go outside and help our kids learn.
With each attempt to ride without training wheels came an attempt to find balance and trust that moving forward, they would stay centered and upright.
After just a few days, our boys were riding with no issue. They trusted that they could rely on the bike and their awareness of their own limits to stay up.
A few days after they got the hang of it, we decided to go out for a longer ride. We headed toward one of the many small parks south of our house that followed a winding creek. As the ground sloped downward into the park, we picked up speed. Suddenly, Keating, my youngest, realized he didn’t know how to brake. I watched him pick up speed as he cruised down the sidewalk, missed his turn to stay on the path, picked up even more speed as he rode through the manicured landscape, hit a small earthen lip that separated the park from the creek, and launched off the pseudo land ramp like a BMX stuntman. He flew through the air and then disappeared out of sight.
I ran down to find him in the creek. The over 6 foot drop from the land to the shallow creek bed was a shocked little boy and his bike. After Sarah and I were relieved to find him alive with no protruding bones or missing limbs, we had to emotionally recenter ourselves and regain composure as we climbed down to the creek.
A little stunned. Maybe laughing and crying simultaneously. Miraculously, all in all, totally fine.
We’ve been in a series on fasting at The Chapel for the past three weeks. There are lots of reasons we can and should fast if we are physically able to. There is a great tradition throughout our Judeo-Christian history—Moses fasted, Elijah fasted, other prophets, leaders, and priests fasted. Jesus fasted, his disciples fasted, and the early church fasted. Across Christian traditions and denominations, faithful followers of Jesus have practiced fasting as a regular rhythm of their spiritual journey.
Fasting doesn’t save us. Fasting doesn’t make you a better Christian. Fasting is a discipline that, if you are able to do it, can be a blessing to you and your journey as you follow Jesus.
One thing we haven’t talked much about, but I think is important to remember: Fasting teaches us to rely on God. Fasting is like training wheels for our faith.
Let me explain.
We can all talk a lot about relying on God. We can say, “All I need is Jesus and coffee…and like 10 million dollars,” but if we’re honest, we rely on a lot of other things we think we need. Then, when life gets hard—when things start heading in a bad direction in your life, your family, your community, or your country, when you get the phone call where you learn the bottom has just fallen out—how do you rely on God then if you haven’t learned to rely on Him now?
The vast majority of us do not have a food scarcity issue. That is a real problem, and there are people, even in our own community, who do not have enough food. But for most of us, having food is not a daily struggle.
So what if we used fasting—intentionally saying,
“No, I will not eat for a set period of time”
—as an opportunity to rely on God?
Maybe it’s just one meal. And we pray:
“God, I could just go to my kitchen and eat right now, but I want to rely on You to be the sustenance I need in this moment. Teach me to rely on You.”
Every time we fast, we are building a rhythm, a habit, of continually trusting God. If I can trust God to take care of me, if I can set aside my own provision and trust in the provision of God regularly, then it becomes a whole lot easier to trust Him when life gets difficult.
See, if I had just put my sons on a bike in the middle of busy Dallas streets pre-2020, I would have been setting them up for failure. They couldn’t have done it—and they would not have been super happy with me.
But when we carved out time and found quiet streets and empty roads, suddenly, they could learn.
Fasting now, when the stakes are low, is an intentional time we carve out to teach ourselves to trust in God. We can learn in safe environments to rely on the love of God the Father, the grace of Jesus, and the communion of the Holy Spirit.
When we practice fasting in small increments, in low-risk situations, we build the ability to trust Jesus more and more—to rely on Him and His provision for us more and more. Then, when the inevitable obstacles of life come our way, we already know where our strength and resilience comes from. It’s not from motivational songs or empowering Instagram quotes. It’s from Jesus.
With each attempt to fast comes an attempt to find balance and trust that, moving forward in faith, we can stay centered and upright as we journey after Jesus, becoming more like Him.
The hope is that when we try fasting, we learn to rely on God and become more aware of our own limits.
When life picks up speed and we hit the metaphorical decline, we know how to trust—because we’ve been doing it on a regular basis. And though life can leave us a little stunned, maybe laughing and crying simultaneously, miraculously, all in all, we’ll be okay.
Again, if you can’t fast from food, no problem. Try abstaining from something else. Food (or whatever you choose to abstain from) isn’t bad. It’s good, and it’s a gift from God that we need in order to live. But when we choose to regularly lay down something good and necessary in order to rely on something infinitely greater, we create holy habits that teach us to trust God as our provider.
A lifetime of trusting in God through the discipline of fasting will build up the strength to trust in Him in all situations. When difficulties come and you find yourself with an inexplicable faith and trust that God is with you, you may not even remember that it all started with simply trying fasting.
We’ll finish out the fasting series this Sunday at worship. If you want to learn more about fasting or catch up or see all the other resources our friends from Practicing the Way have created, go to thechapelatseaside.com/fasting.
Lots of other great things happening at The Chapel in the coming months. Read on and I hope you will join us.
Tuesday Noon Prayer Hour is up and going. From noon to 1pm, join us and our friends at 30A Prays at The Chapel for an hour of guided prayer. Come and go as you need.
Bible Studies are up and going.
Men’s Bible Study in Exodus is at 8am on Wednesdays.
Women’s Bible Study in Exodus is at 9:30am on Wednesdays.
Young Adult (20’s and 30’s) Bible Study in Exodus is at 8am on Thursdays.
All three groups are synced up in content, so our Bible Study Podcast, Chapel Study Notes will work with all three groups. Listen to it wherever you stream podcasts or on Spotify or Apple.
Mission Sunday. On Sunday, March 2nd we will highlight our mission and outreach partners at The Chapel. We will also share in communion at 9am and have our friends from Panama City Coffee providing coffee that morning. Join us for this great Sunday as we both remember Jesus and him laying down his life for us and the calling we all have to lay down our lives for one another…and do it while enjoying some craft coffee.
Ash Wednesday. The Season of Lent, the 40 days leading up to Easter, kicks off on Wednesday, March 5th at 6pm. Join us for this beautiful and simple service that reminds us that from dust we came and dust we shall return. Our hope is to believe in the good news of Jesus. We will also have a Lenten Guide for you to help prepare your heart and mind as we journey to Easter morning.
Lent Guide. We have created a guide for you during the season of Lent, the 40 days leading up to Easter Morning, starting Wednesday, March 5th. We’ll have those available leading up to our Ash Wednesday service. We will also have digital versions available for you to follow along if you can’t pick up a hard copy. Our hope is that you will journey with us as we follow Jesus and his journey.
Holy Week Times.
While we’re talking about Lent and Easter, we wanted to make sure you had the times of our special services.
Ash Wednesday, March 5th. 6pm at The Chapel. The beginning of the season of Lent.
Palm Sunday, April 13th. 10am at The Chapel. The day we remember Jesus riding into Jerusalem.
Maundy Thursday, April 17th. 6pm at The Chapel. The communion service where we remember Jesus sharing in the last supper with his disciples.
Good Friday, April 18th. 6pm at The Chapel. The dark and difficult day where we remember the death of Jesus.
Sunrise Service, Easter Sunday, April 20th. 6am at the Seaside Beach.
Easter Sunday, April 20th. 8:30am and 10am at The Chapel.
We’ll have more reminders and details about those services as time draws closer. We just want to make sure you have this for your calendar.
Night of Worship-Hymn Sing. On Sunday, March 9th, at 6:00 PM, we invite you to A Night of Hymns at The Chapel at Seaside. Come share in the rich heritage of God’s people from every generation, singing the great hymns of the faith.
The Tower. If you haven’t checked out the latest copy of The Tower, check it out here.
Like always, if you are out of town, under the weather, or just need to worship from home, you can watch all of our worship services on our live-stream on our website, thechapelatseaside.com,
on our Facebook page, Facebook.com/TheChapelAtSeaside
and our Vimeo page, Vimeo.com/thechapelatseaside.
Let us know if you need anything or have any questions.
Blessings,
Andrew