By John “Bad-Santa” Lyons

A few years ago, I was at a huge biker event in Reno, Nevada, tending a Boot Shine booth with our Motorcycle Ministry Black Sheep Harley-Davidsons for Christ M/M. As we always do at these events, we put up a booth offering prayer and boot shines free of charge to those who decide they want one or both. Well, as our Lord works in our lives, a woman had walked up behind me and tugged on my shirt, so I turned around, and there was this woman with her 17-year-old son, both obvious bikers and belonged to a biker M/C.

So, I asked: “how can I help you?” and she looked me right in the eye and said: “I want you to put Jesus in my son’s life…” To which I replied: “Nobody can put Jesus in someone’s life unless they themselves want Him in their life. It’s their choice and decision to make on their own.” Then she started telling me about her life as a biker wife and how she had decided she didn’t want her son living that kind of life anymore. So, I replied: “how does your son feel about that because he has to want to change his life just as bad as you want him to.”

So, she introduced her son to me, and I asked him the same question, to which he replied: “I’d like to know more about it.”

He opened the door, and as Our Lord works, I’m thinking, Lord Jesus, give me the words or an example to show this young man how YOU can work in his life just as You have done for me and for so many others! Then the Lord said to me in my spirit: “Get him in the boot shine booth.” So, as I cleaned and shined one of his boots, the Lord said: “There, John, now stop and use the shined boot and compare it to the dirty boot, which is the life he’s living now.”

I said to the young man: “I want you to look at both your boots, one still scared and dirty, and the other brushed, wiped clean and shiny… The shiny one, young man, is what Jesus can and will do in your life if you decide you’d rather live a better, cleaner life than the one you’re now a part of. Once you ask Jesus into your life and ask Him to forgive you of your sins, He will make you a clean, shiny boot just like the one I’ve just shined. But you have to truly want to change from being just a dirty boot walking and riding through life and want to have an open and new heart, a cleared mind, and want your soul’s destiny to change now and for your eternity. I cannot think or make that decision for you, it is a choice only you can make for yourself.

He sat there in the chair as I shined his other boot, not saying a word. When I finished, I looked up at him and said to him: “You know, I just planted the seed of God’s grace and love He has for you and told you how much He wants you to accept His only son Jesus Christ who died for all mankind on the cross, and who paid the price in full with His death so that we may live with Him forever as He guides our lives for the better, for ourselves and others – even after we die one day and we all will – we just don’t know when that day will come.” I asked the young man: “do you mind if I pray for you?” and he said “no sir, I’d like that” so we prayed…

He left by giving me a huge hug and said thank you. I don’t know to this day if that young man ever accepted Jesus into his heart, but I do know that God gave me and the young man a full picture of what Jesus can do in our lives if we only decide to accept Him. Just as the two boots show us, one is a worldly boot in life full of scars, sins, and dirty situations in our lives, but if you decide to accept His cleansing ways, you too can become the shiny boot. People will see Christ in you and you in Him for a much better life than the one you are currently living… so the question now is, are you ready for Christ’s saving grace in your life?

In Christ’s Love!

John “Bad-Santa” Lyons

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