In this spoken anecdote, the narrator recalls growing up around his professional motocross‑racing uncle. At about age ten, he receives a small Honda XR75 that his uncle won as a trophy and begins riding it on a makeshift track at his grandparents' farm. When his uncle is absent, the narrator sneaks into the garage and dons his uncle’s oversized motocross armor—chest plate, arm plates, braced gloves, padded pants, and high boots. Wearing the gear makes him feel invincible; he speeds around the track, attempts the triple jumps, and even flies over one. One day he chases his other uncle, Uncle Earl, on a gravel road, attempts to cut corners, loses control, and crashes into blackberry bushes. Thanks to the armor, he emerges unscathed, but his uncle is furious and reports the incident, leading to the bike being taken away. The story culminates in a metaphor: just as the physical armor gave him a sense of immortality, putting on the “armor of God” (as described in the Bible) can provide spiritual protection and strength.
Chapters
When I was about 10, I must have been about 12, my uncle was a professional motocross racer, and I grew up watching him going to races from when I was just a little kid. But when I was about 10, he won as a trophy a Honda XR75. And he was in his 20s, so it was too small for him. But they kind of know that most motocross people have little brothers or cousins or whatever, so he won this awesome little XR75 that could just tear up the ground for a 10-year-old. And so I would go up to my grandparents' farm and I would tear around on this little thing and I loved it. And when my uncle wasn't there, I would go— because when he was there he would come out riding with me and he would wear his gear and stuff— but when he wasn't there, I would go and I would sneak into the garage where he kept his race bikes and I'd go into the big box where he kept all of his gear and I'd get out all of his motocross gear. And I'd put on his chest plate, and I'd put on his arm plates, and I'd put on his gloves that had like metal bracing through them, and I'd put on the pants and the big plastic plates in the legs, and the boots that were supposed to come up to the middle of your thigh but they came up over my knee. And I put on all this armor that was way too big for me. But before, when I wasn't wearing it, and I was much lighter, but I would ride around out in the field and I'd be like, "Mmm, mm, mm, mm." And he had a track that he carved into the field down under the house where he'd practice, and it was Awesome to watch him practice on it. But I'd be going around on it, and I'd come up to one of his triple jumps where he would just— and he'd clear the one in the middle and land on the other side.
And I'd go— that was the triple jump. Woo!
I did all 3. And very rarely would my bike leave the ground. And then I'd go up around, and he'd go around the turns. You know, they have these big berms. And he'd just like— woo! And he'd power through it. And his back end would be skidding around the whole way around.
And I'd—
it was like I was on a scooter. Well, then I would go and put all of his armor on, and I would come down to that same track, and suddenly that little 75 was immortal. And because I was wearing the armor that I had seen, because I was wearing my uncle, and I was inside of my uncle's armor, and I had seen him fly, I could fly. And so I would tear around that track, and I would get that little thing as fast as I could get it, and I'd be in 5th gear when I hit the triples. And I would only leave the ground and go over just one, but I would— I was flying! And yeah, I'd wreck and it hurt a little bit, but I didn't get any bruises and Mom couldn't see any bruises or cuts or anything because I had armor all over the place. And one day as I was out there on the track and I was zooming around, "Brrr, brrr, brrr, brrr," and I was having a blast wearing all of my uncle's stuff and his helmet and everything, I saw my other uncle coming down the road. And it was a big long dirt road, gravel road coming up the valley to where my grandparents' house was. And I thought, huh, I'm going to chase him. And so, vroom, got out on the road. And I was behind him. And I just cranked it, catching up with him. And he's in a big truck, you know, vroom. And he looks in his rear vision mirror— that's over here in America— looks up in the rear vision mirror, and he's like, what's that kid doing? And I'm just flying. I'm going to pass Uncle Earl. I'm going to overtake him. And so, vroom. And there was this S-bend halfway up the valley that I don't know what happened. It must have been a property dispute, because literally the road just went It was a flat, flat as a pancake piece of property, but the road went down and then just went 90 degrees that way for about 100 meters and then the same direction. So just ch-ch-ch. And so I thought, you know what's gonna happen? He's gonna have to slow right down for those corners. Which I found out later wasn't necessarily true. He'd actually rolled 3 cars on those corners because he was a bit insane. But anyway, Earl was coming towards the first corner and I thought, you know what I'm gonna do? He's gonna have to, he's He's gonna have to slow down and take it. So if I take the first corner really wide and cut across it, and then take the next corner really wide and cut into the inside, maybe I'll be fast enough that I'll be catching up with him and I can cut him off on the inside and I'll pass him. And so I flew as fast as I could and I caught up pretty close on the first corner, and he pulled out in front of me on the straightaway again, and then I got to the second corner, and the first corner I leaned over pretty far to get enough of an angle to try to shoot across the corner, and the second corner I leaned over again and I thought, I'm not gonna pass him, he's too far ahead, so I gunned it as hard as I could I could, and when I did, the back end broke loose. And I was already laying nearly parallel with the ground trying to take the corner, and the back end went vroom, and my bike shot out from under me, and I shot after the bike, and the bike went vroom right off the side of the road and down the embankment into blackberry bushes. And I flew right after it, vroom, and landed in the blackberry bushes. And my uncle looked in his mirror. I've killed him. Where is he? And he's looking everywhere, and there's just nothing. And so he slams the brakes on, which upon reflection I wonder I don't know why, if he thinks I'm— because he said he thought I was under the car. He slams the brakes on and gets out of the car, looks underneath it. I'm not there. Starts looking around, and by this time he hears the engine start because I've landed down in this very bush, big whole bunch of them. And because I was wearing all of my uncle's armor, it didn't hurt. I had everything was protected. I had a helmet, I had gloves, I had— there wasn't one part of my body showing. And I just stood up in these briars And I fought through to my bike and I stood it up. And because it was a little bit lighter than I was, I could push it pretty well. And I started it up and I pushed the engine a little hard and I pushed it and I got to the side of the road. And I came up over the top next to my bike, pushing it. And then I hopped on my bike and I rode over to my uncle. And he was so mad at me. I thought I killed you, you stupid kid. I said, I'm okay. I'm wearing all of Tim's gear. I'm fine. He said, "Ah, but you could have been killed. I'm going to tell your mother." And so he did. He went home and told my mom, and I got the bike taken away for a while. But the metaphor stands. I was wearing my uncle's armor. And you know, the Bible promises us that if we suit up in God's armor, if we stop trying to do it in our own strength, but like Gideon we say, "Look, I don't have a clue what you're talking about or why you'd want me to do that, but if you want me to be someone filled with peace and faith and love and kindness and prayer, if you think those things are gonna make me strong, alright, I'll do it. I'll put on your armor because it works for you. And we climb into the armor of Christ, we will be immortal.
