I must admit, most of what I'm saying here was stolen from a conversation I had with the pastor that I'm currently interning for at University UMC at College Park. Regardless, everything is an original thought, just for you, my beloved readers.
As most young males my age who grew up riding a bike, coming into maturity brings a crisis. Do I continue riding a one-speed, BMX bike as I have all my life and just deal with how bad they are in terms of speed and distance, do I stop riding a bike altogether, or do I invest lots of money in a road or mountain bike? Unless you are one of the rare few who can make a living racing or doing tricks on a BMX bike, this question is almost universal to all young males who ever owned a bike.
Most people choose to give up riding a bike altogether. BMX bikes are too slow and too hard to ride more than a couple of miles if hills are involved. The comfort and convenience of a car is clearly preferred. But some of us are dedicated to saving the environment, or getting as much exercise as possible, or having our own physical effort blow wind in our face and give us the rush of flying down a hill.
For the second group (which obviously can and often does include females. I talk of young males simply because riding a BMX bike is often a sign of "cool"ness in our younger years and most of us in suburbia own a bike at some point in our lives), riding a bike becomes a somewhat serious endeavor. There are some of those really dedicated riders who buy special riding clothes and go out for 40 mile bike rides simply to have "fun." Honestly, I will never be one of those people. I sweat too profusely for that to ever be enjoyable and I don't like pushing my body to its limits. Riding a bike is extremely enjoyable, though. But to get to a point where you can ride 10, 15, 20, 25 miles in one sitting, you have to possess some riding skill.
For me, my love of God's Creation is what convinces me to hop on my bike whenever possible. Others really love getting exercise. Mountain bikers live for the top of a mountain (or, for the really adventurous, they live for the bottom of a mountain). Having a real solid motivation for finishing out the bike ride is the first key, the first element to riding skill. Without a firm belief in what you're doing you'll never finish. The same is true in this life of faith. If we don't spend the time talking to God and reflecting on our relationship with Him, and truly enjoying our time with Him, then our faith will be the first thing to run into trouble when our life finds a crisis to wallow in. We could probably say that about any relationship, let alone our relationship with God. If we think we love a girlfriend or boyfriend but haven't ensured that our love is true, solid, and whole, then we better watch out for the first fight. If you want to have a meaningful, peaceful, joyful relationship with God, don't take it for granted. There is no way I could have survived my 20 mile bike ride the other day if I had simply one day woken up and decided to start riding a bike instead of driving my car. Every time I get on my bike (Cato is his name) I ask myself if saving the environment really means enough for me to tire out my body. I take a few minutes of silence, and if the answer isn't a very firm yes, I just don't go out that day. We've got to really want our relationship with God. It's a two-way street, and we have to do our part, we have to put in our time. It wouldn't matter how much I care about the environment if I didn't put time and effort into doing something about it, because if I didn't, I'd still be doing my part to destroy our lovely home.
The faith lessons we can learn from riding a bike don't stop there. Those of you who don't do much biking may be able to understand the need for a real solid motivation when biking. The thought of riding long distances can be intimidating, so clearly one needs an unwavering motivation. The other elements of biking skills may need to be taken on trust. If that is the case, I promise you can trust me.
Maybe I'm the only one who watches the Tour de France. If you ever have, though, you may have been confused by some of the announcers' comments, such as, "So and so has better mechanics than such and such." At first I asked, "All they are doing is pedaling. Isn't the only difference how powerful their legs are?" With more experience I realized that's not at all a good question. Particularly with mountain biking, balance is absolutely essential. You don't want to hit a tree stump or fall unexpectedly into a ditch with an off-balance bike. Trust me, the results aren't pretty. Even with road biking, though, if you don't keep the bike balanced you lose a lot of energy. Often bikers will pedal as hard as they can and the bike will lean back and forth, as if it were on a pendulum. I don't mean that the bike isn't going straight. The biker just lets the bike tilt from a lean toward the left pedal, then the right pedal, then the left, so on. One can hardly blame the biker for doing that. It's easier to push down hard on the pedal when you lean to one side. But if you were to pedal with the same rhythm and strength without leaning at all, you'd find that you can ride the same distance faster and without exerting the same amount of energy.
Let's think about that real quick. Without balance, it doesn't matter how hard the biker pedals, they will always lose speed and energy. Interesting. I bet you can see where I'm going with this. Yes, obviously, leg muscles are a huge factor in biking fast and far, but without balance you won't ever reach your full potential. And without balance, you'll always finish the ride totally exhausted. Balance is necessary in our faith journey as well. You'll lose steam if you push hard in one area of your life to the exclusion of others, and then push hard in some other area of your life, and then push hard in yet another, all the while focusing with all your available energy on only one area of your life. That will tire you out quickly and require lots of rejuvenation... or might lead some to drop certain activities when it's not necessary to do so. Balance all things, knowing that God is pleased and with us when we are calm and centered. When we've been riding for an hour or more balance is hard to come by. We want to put everything we have into every pedal and that means leaning a bit, if not a lot. That's another spot where a solid motivation keeps us going. At the ironic moment when we think we can't go any longer and start riding in such a way that drains us of our energy even faster, a solid motivation can solidify our concentration and focus to allow us to remain balanced even when we're exhausted because instead of thinking, "Geez, I just need to get through this," we're thinking, "I'm doing this for all the right reasons, so I'm getting at least some pleasure from this pain."
One last comment on the lessons of bike riding. I could go on for a lot longer on the subject, but I won't. I'll let you hop on your own bike and reflect on it. Here we go. On a road or mountain bike, the higher gear means it will be harder to pedal, but it also means that each rotation of the pedals takes you farther. Sort of like a car: 2,500 revolutions per minute in 2nd gear doesn't result in as high a speed as 2,500 rpm in 4th gear. The problem with driving a car, though, is that we as the driver aren't necessarily privy to how much harder 4th gear is on the car. On a bike it's hard to miss the difference. 7th gear is much harder than 3rd gear. Most people hop on a bike, realize that the first few gears are easy and not letting them feel the wind on their face, and push into 6th, 7th, 8th gears. At first they feel a little stress in their legs but think it's no big deal. After five minutes they start thinking differently. Granted, they may have reached some high speeds, but the tortoise wins the race. If you're feeling pain in your legs you better be near the end of your ride or get in a lower gear. High speeds are only temporary if you can't do it with some ease. Clearly, then, we must learn to slow down. No matter how sure we are that we are called by God to a certain project or lifestyle, we must bike the race at a pace comfortable to us until we can build up some endurance, or else we'll burn out too quickly and take decades rather than a few years to achieve goals. Over a thirty mile trek, someone riding at a speed at the cusp of what's comfortable for them will always arrive before someone riding as fast as their legs will allow at all times. The latter will need a thousand breaks and eventually even a 3rd or 2nd gear may bring immense pain. Let's learn to love the length of life God has given us. He wouldn't call us to a task that we don't have time for. So let's take our time, be comfortable, enjoy the sights, and love our conversations along the way. And also, let us know that God wants to spend time with us without demanding that we accomplish certain tasks to earn His love. Whatever we are called to, it's so others may know how much God loves them, not so that He will love us for doing something good.
I encourage you to get on a bike. Sweat a little. Pretend you're Lance Armstrong. Feel your legs ache. Save God's Creation. Most of all, though, get on the bike and reflect on how it's a mini-metaphor for our life with God. Maybe you can even think of the bike you ride as God, if it helps. Peace.
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