Gotcha

I think everybody remembers the time when they learned how to ride a bike. For me it seemed like it was straight out of a T.V show. It went something like this:

I woke up one day  with a certain determination to conquer something and that could only mean one thing- it was time for the training wheels to come off my blue Huffy bike and for me to become a man. I saddled up for the first time and experienced the wobbliness of my bike as my dad was there with his hands on my shoulders saying “I gotcha.” He pushed me back and forth on the sidewalk outside our house until I was finally ready to try it on my own.

I took a deep breath and was off. I could feel my dad’s hands leaving my shoulders and began to pedal faster and faster. I was free! My legs started pumping and I could feel the adrenaline rushing as I found myself four feet away from him. Now I was 6 feet away, now 10 feet, and suddenly 12 feet away from my dad!

And then I fell into a cactus.

I don’t know why my neighbor decided that having a pet cactus was a good idea but it was pretty traumatizing now that I think about it. The experience ended with me standing in my living room without a shirt on while my dad plucked hundreds of cactus spikes out of my back. Some of the spikes were long and easy to see but some of them were tiny and seemingly microscopic.  I remember my dad with tweezers staring at my back and yelling “gotcha” every time he plucked one out.

I think that lately I have been in a season of “gotcha.”

I feel like I am in one of those transitional phases that no body really knows what to do with. I know that great things are about to happen so I get myself all psyched up and ready to be bold and take risks. I want the freedom to be pedaling on my own and actually going places but it seems like everything is silent. There is no inspiration, revelation, or motivation and all I keep hearing from God is “I gotcha.”

At first I misunderstood. I thought God was using the “gotcha” that implied He had caught me or something. Like He was standing over me with tweezers plucking me out of something I enjoyed and was proud of Himself for it. We say that word to emphasize our dominance over whatever it is we have just captured and subdued but that didn’t sound like something God would say.

What He was really saying was this, “I gotcha, I’m right here. Can you feel my hands on your back guiding you? Can you feel me feel me behind you pushing you and encouraging you? You aren’t ready to be pedaling on your own yet but I still have you. Yes you are about to move faster than you ever have before but you are also going to have to pedal harder than you ever have before so right now, just enjoy the fact that I am right here with you. The revelation and inspiration will come later because all you need to know is that I am here with you. I have you even in your in between phases. I just wanted to remind you I was here. I gotcha.”

Wait, pedal? Your hands on my back guiding me? Early childhood flashback? Oh! I get it.

Sometimes we will be in times where God is using the tweezers kind of “gotcha” and pruning out all the things stuck in our life that shouldn’t be there. Other times He is using the other kind of “gotcha” and just reminding us that He has us in His arms. Parents and children everywhere understand this. When you have a bad dream and come running into your parents room and they give you a big hug they say “Don’t be afraid, I gotcha.” When you are learning to ride a bike and are about to fall over, you dad behind you reassures you by saying “You can do this, I gotcha.”

God just wants to remind us that He has us. We don’t need a sign or miracle, just the pat on the back that tells us He is still here. Quit worrying about everything and stop and realize that God has everything under control and the only thing he wants to do is enjoy your company. Enjoy His presence now or you might fall into a cactus later.