The roads of freedom

America the beautiful. And tis true as I can testify to with authority after completing a 6800 mile trip to the West Coast from the East Coast and back again. America is indeed beautiful. But for someone like me who has lived much of the last 14 years in post-socialist nirvana, better known as Russia and the Balkans, beauty, while breathtaking, was not the most profound discovery of my transcontinental motorcycle trip. Freedom was.

Freedom to travel so far, unmolested, without documents, without police interference, with no border guards, with no customs officers, with the freedom to stop wherever I wanted whenever I wanted and pretty much do whatever I wanted . . . was . . . amazing.

Few people in the wide wide world experience such freedom of travel, thought and action. While American citizens who never leave their zip codes probably would not notice, nor appreciate this phenomena nearly as much as I did, they should. Freedom should never be taken lightly.

There are other freedoms I pondered while on my motorcycle for days and days . . . the heaviest of these is the end of my professional holy man days. I am more and more convinced that our evangelical system of church is less and less biblical. Professional Christians, known as clergy in many circles, are those people who stand in for God. We serve His sacraments, we lead His hymns and songs, we pray His prayers, we teach His book . . . we also take much of His abuse and almost all of His adulation.

Professional Christians maintain the system that makes weekly gatherings mandatory for those who wish to be in good standing with Him. We professional Christians also dictate that you, the Christian professionals, must give your money to this system, that you must volunteer your time to this system, that you must serve on committees that preserve this system, that we must do everything possible to maintain and perpetuate this system . . . and on and I could go, but won’t.

There just seems to be little left of the two great commandments of Scripture, in the system (we all this church). There is little human, caring, loving texture left in the system. I think God wants to set us free. Free to be human, free from rules of the system (think modern contemporary pharisees here) free to love and care for humans in human ways. I may still work in the system occasionally and I may still perform some of actions of clergy. But inside the garden of my heart, and in the manner I earn my living, my professional holy man days are numbered. As my friend Mark said to me not too long ago, I can be a Christian professional, but I can’t be a profession Christian any longer.

Deserts and Mountains

There is so much varied terrain in the USA. Today I drove through a 170 miles of Nevada desert and also crossed the first range of the Sierra Nevada mountains. What a day of contrasts. The flabbergasting hues and colors of the desert are amazing. And how anything can grow out of nothing is even more amazing. But it was so hot that I was riding in a short sleeve shirt on October 1, 2008. I don't often ride in a short sleeve shirt, because my riding jacket is also one of my best lines of safety defense. That ballistic material could be a life-saver if I lay the motorcycle down. I ride without my jacket very reluctantly on the highway at high speeds. But when it is 100 degrees in the desert, you ride without the jacket.

But as I crossed the 6000 foot elevation marker, I had to stop and get the jacket out . . . the change in temp was phenomenal. And as I reached nearly 8000 feet elevation, it got downright cold! Brrr!

Then there was that running out of gas problem. There are such large distances between gas stations, that I came into Big Pines, California today on nothing but gas fumes! Add to that that no one should every try to cross the Sierra Nevada's after the sun sets, and you have the recipe for a tough and difficult ride today.

But what a study in contrasts. I am having so much fun that I feel guilty.