Sonrise Magazine

And answering Jesus says to them: Have faith of God
(Mark 11:22 Greek-English New Testament).

“Ready To Ride” watercolor by Kathy Hunt

When I was about eight, my dad gave me a new bicycle. It was a shiny red Schwinn with a two-speed
gearbox built into the rear axle, which I shifted by lightly braking with the pedal. Having this bike greatly
expanded my horizons of exploration beyond my neighborhood. In ways more than this, this bike was a
gift that kept on giving.
Since my family derives from Germany, and my dad’s mother was the daughter of a Lutheran pastor in
Germany, we attended the Lutheran church in Olympia. As an adolescent, I went through confirmation
class, which consisted of listening to an elder drone on about the doctrines of the church. At its
conclusion, I recall sitting in the pastor’s office with him across his desk from me. He was a kind and
good pastor. He asked me if I believed that Jesus is the Son of God. I said, “Yes,” both to pass the class
and because, intellectually, I assented to that fact as a much as a boy of about 12 could do. But I didn’t
receive a real personal faith at that time.
In the summer before my junior year in high school, my parents leased a big house located at the water’s
edge of the southernmost bay of Puget Sound, Budd Inlet. This four-story house included a basement play
area that on a few occasions was flooded by extra high tides that overflowed the 3-4 feet high cement
bulkhead that arose from the rocky beach. The main floor was richly paneled in dark wood, and the
second floor was where four bedrooms were located. Mine was facing the water, and I could hear it
lapping against the beach with my east window open. My brother Hans enjoyed the unique privacy of the
unfinished attic.
Living in this idyllic environment for my last two years in high school was a gift from God. The six of us
had been crammed into a two-bedroom, one-bathroom rambler for about 10 years. My parents did
remodel the garage into a bedroom and added a half bath for us boys after my sister Alice was born. Still,
the space was small, especially compared to the grand expanse of the house on the bay with its
spectacular setting. My dad bought a light aluminum 15-foot speedboat with about a 30 HP outboard
engine that would easily pull one of us water-skiing. Dad built a dock on a floating log, which he
anchored just outside our house and where we kept the boat tied up.
Even before we moved to the beach house, I used to visit Rita, who played the violin and shared a music
stand with me in the orchestra at times. She also went to our Lutheran church. I liked her, but I also went
there since they lived on the bay on the other side of Cooper’s Point and had a water ski boat before we
did. I enjoyed water-skiing with them and riding minibikes with her brothers. Frequently, when I went to
see Rita, her mother, Opal, would boldly tell me I needed to ask Jesus Christ to forgive me of my sins.
For months, I let her statements go by me because I wasn’t acutely aware of any gross sins I had committed.
As a junior in high school, I served as a public elementary school camp counselor for a week. The last
morning of the camp, I decided to pull a prank. I deliberately got up early and rang the camp bell at 7
AM for breakfast, which wasn’t scheduled till 8 AM. This was an affront to the public -school

administration who organized the camp. Later, when I was back in high school, I was called onto the carpet by one of the administrators. I was sternly reprimanded, and I felt the guilt of my action, for I had
rebelled against the authorities over me.
This guilt I felt made me realize I needed forgiveness of my sins. To receive forgiveness of my own sins
meant I needed faith in God, which I didn’t yet personally possess. Despite my church education, I didn’t have a genuine faith. What I had was intellectual assent to a doctrine. That was not enough to assuage my
personal guilt. I needed a gift of faith from God.
To receive that forgiveness, I of course needed to believe that God wanted to forgive me. The next time Rita’s mother, Opal, told me I needed to ask Christ for forgiveness of my sins, I agreed and prayed with
her and asked Jesus Christ to forgive me of my sins and come into my life. He did! I received that faith
in our Lord Jesus Christ, recalling that He had died for me and risen from the dead. I experienced amazing peace. In that moment, God gave me His gift of faith in Christ. I was born again. “For it is by
grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by
works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV).
I remember being in my bedroom shortly thereafter. It was evening, the air was warm, and my windows
were open. I felt a balmy breeze coming through and heard the water lapping onto the beach below. I felt
God speak to my heart that to be and not to strive was what was really counted. I knew that He was my
Father and accepted me as I was, not based on what I did or could do.
Remember the red Schwinn bicycle my dad gave me when I was about eight years old? It was a full-size
bike, and initially, I had to really stretch and shift my weight from side to side to reach the pedals with my
short kid’s legs while straddling the center bar. As I grew, the bike became easier and easier to ride. That’s
how it is with one’s faith. The more you grow in Christ, the easier it is to use your faith in Him.
This bike served me and others in my family for decades. It stayed with my parents when I went to college, med school, residency, and my medical practice. My dad or other family members would ride it occasionally. I rode it when we gathered for family reunions and took rides with my siblings. About 50
years later, I gave it to my friend, Lee, an auto mechanic. He gave it to another auto mechanic friend who,
in turn, gave it to a boy he led in Royal Rangers, a Christian ministry similar to Boy Scouts. This mechanic and boy together fixed the gear shift and pedal, painted it, bought and installed new tires and got this classic bike into super shape. I believe it is still serving this boy superbly.
That bicycle saga shows how faith is the gift that keeps on giving. You give it away, and you don’t lose any of it, but rather gain more, as you see your faith working. God gives you faith if you choose to receive it. You receive faith when you receive Christ. Jesus is the gift of God to everyone who receives Him.
“I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every
good thing we have in Christ” (Philemon 6 NIV).
This article is abridged from Chapter 1 of Have Faith of God by Thomas Giesecke, just published. It and
his other books are available on Amazon. His first book Gracious Goodness! is in our Sonrise bookstore.

Tom Giesecke (Sonrise Magazine Editor) Author. Grew up in Olympia, WA, where he received Christ at age 15.  He graduated from Davidson College, NC, and Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA. After his medical internship at the National Naval Medical Center Bethesda, MD, he trained and served as a U.S. Navy Flight Surgeon for four years. Following residency training, he served thousands of people as a Board-certified Family Physician for more than thirty-five years. Learning of God’s love motivates Tom to daily search the Scriptures for more. Tom has led Bible studies for many years and enjoys sharing “the word of God, and recently publishing a book (find in the Sonrise Bookstore and Amazon) on the grace of God: Gracious Goodness.” Reach Tom at tomgiesecke@comcast.net