Dingo Boots

I love Christmas parties. One extremely special Christmas party took place when I was in grade 11. As my buddy Zach and I were driving to this wonderful event, we ran over a cat. This cat was already dead, bloated, and was frozen solid on the snowy road. After the laughter subsided, we walked into the joyous scene of cookies, coffee, hot dogs roasting in the fire place, and more people than the fire code permitted. Were we in for a treat!

At the door stood a man with voice that pierced the air. His greetings were full volume, in your face, and easily accepted. This man's name was Clay Binford. Today, I call him "Uncle Clay."

I had heard a lot about Clay from his best friend Seth (see last week's post) but this was my first face-to-face encounter with him. After introductions and high fives, Zach and I shared the story of the frozen, dead cat with Clay. First impressions really do count.

Fast forward a couple months. One day after school, Clay asks me, "Hey Tim! Do you wanna mountain bike with me this summer?!" "Heck yes I do!" was my reply, "But I don't have a mountain bike." Clay proceeds to offer me his "old junker sitting in the garage" and I willingly accept his generous gift.

Clay and I (along with many other characters) started pedaling bikes up and down mountains, careening through trees, splashing in puddles, and laughing a lot ever since then. Thursday nights after work, we'd head to the trail with some friends, ride our hearts out, and learn about life together.

Mountain biking was just a simple tool that Clay used to disciple me. With a common interest, we had something to do every week, and from there our relationship grew. We started reading the Bible together on Friday mornings. Now that I think of it, Clay tricked me into all this ...

Clay really helped me see what unconditional love looks like. Jesus is the perfect example of this and Clay pointed me to Jesus to see that when I sin again and again, Jesus is there with open arms welcoming me back to His side. When life sucks, people hurt us, or it just seems like nothing is going right - Jesus is still there loving us through it all.