I find it interesting when I come across individuals who want to appear to be bikers, yet by just spending a little time with them you can soon tell they are not.
They may wear the t-shirts, have knowledge of motorcycles, perhaps wear a leather jacket... but they lack one thing.
They really don't ride, nor have they ever really ridden.
When you talk to them about the joy of the open road, you can see that somewhere in the conversation you lost them. They nod, they smile, but they don't appear to have ever understood it. They have never really tasted the "life behind bars".
Time and observation can often erode a first impression. Someone who appears educated can soon show ignorance, someone who appears to come from simple means can show wisdom that a college education or higher cannot provide.
Truth about who we are cannot be hidden for long.
And that is why we go through trials as Christians. It is easy to take the name, buy a bible and go to church. It is yet another thing to actually walk the walk and live the life.
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." 1 Peter 1:3-7 (NIV)
May we be proven to be the "real deal"
