The Holy Spirit is Here to Help

Good morning boys and girls. Hope you are all well. Been sitting in my car thinking about something that happened to me a couple days ago on Memorial Day.

So, friends of mine asked me would I like to go mountain biking with them and I said of course I would. So, headed out early. Got everything ready, started getting on the bikes, started riding on the main trail and it was fun. We just were talking, stories, catching up, how was life. And then eventually we started climbing this very narrow trail, we call it single track, going up to the top of this hill. And it's a fun hill and when you get to the top, you can just see everywhere all over the Inland Empire. And there's this really big flag

And there's about, I think, four or five different ways of getting down from this hill. And we chose to go down this ridge. I've done it before plenty of times. Going a little faster than I probably would normally, but I was able to catch up with them. So I felt like, hey, I've made an accomplishment. I kept up with my friends going faster than I normally do. But then we got to the part where I normally turn left to go down this trail. I think it's called Sidewinder. And it's not a hard trail, but it's not an easy trail either.

Instead we kept going down and I realized there's only two ways from there to get down to the main trail You either take continue to go down West Ridge or go down Caldera and when we got to the Caldera trail my friends stopped they were asking the guys who were actually about to go down and I said is this trail hard and I said, I mean it's hard but it's not impossible.

And I knew, I knew right then that this trail was definitely above my ability to ride down safely. And against better judgment, I did not listen to the Holy Spirit telling me, "You should not go down this trail." I should have just told my friends, "Guys, I'm not ready for this. Let me turn around. I'll meet you down at the bottom. I'll take Sidewinder down."

But curiosity got the best of me. I started going down this trail. I'm not gonna lie. It was fun. I could bank left. I could bank right. I could go up. I could go down. I could turn really hard like a like a pilot in a fast plane. It was fun until I got to the very end of the difficult section where it was this pretty steep drop off. In the drop off, there was a little rut. There was like a little little line that was the rain had created a rut. And if I went left, I could risk going into a ditch or if I went right, it was really dusty and dry and I could lose control and I was moving. I couldn't just stop. So I went through the right. I lost my footing with my bike and I fell off and I scraped my my my arm and my my knee. I was OK, but more than anything, my pride was hurt.

I should have been listening to the Holy Spirit who'd been telling me the whole time, "Don't go down this trail." But my curiosity, and I would actually say even a little bit of peer pressure from my friends, got me to this point. And I could have blamed God. "God, this is not fair." I didn't have any ability to blame God because I knew I was at fault. I didn't listen to God, actually. And I could have gotten really, really hurt. Well, I met up with my friends. They checked on me. We were fine. And we continued a little bit more riding.

But I had to think about this, you know? It could have been easy for me to blame God. Why did this happen? And sometimes in life, there are some things that we just don't quite understand. Why do bad things happen to good people? Or I don't deserve this. Oftentimes, I will say that sometimes when bad things happen, we have to ask ourselves, how did I contribute to this? Is there any part that I played that got me to this situation? And then there are some times we have to just pray and ask God, “God, I don't understand, but help me through this.” Jesus says he would never leave us nor abandon us. That's why he sent the Holy Spirit or the advocate, as he calls the Holy Spirit in John.

The Holy Spirit's there to help move us forward, to lead and guide us. And I also want to encourage you, when something happens to you, or maybe somebody asks you to do something that's not good, or you have questions, maybe ask somebody who you think is wise, maybe a parent, or somebody who's older than you, maybe your teacher, or your neighbor, your best friend's mom. What do you think about this? Because they have some experience. They're able to help you make a better decision.

But more than anything, go to God. Pray about a situation. If you don't feel uncomfortable, if you don't feel uncomfortable, there's a reason for that. So heed God's word. Pray and listen to the Holy Spirit. Weigh the consequences. Is this a good decision or a bad decision? And trust God with your decision. God is always ready and willing to listen and help you in all of life's journeys. May God bless you and be well.

Dear Jesus, please be with all of our children here today. Lead and guide them in all aspects of their lives, especially when maybe difficult scenarios or difficult decisions are coming up. Lord, may the Holy Spirit lead and guide them and all of us, even the bigger kids, be with their families, be with their parents as they continue to help grow and disciple, mentor them and raise them. Thank you, Lord, for all of our children. In Jesus name. Amen.

Thanks, boys and girls. Take care.