Keep on Pedaling

There are good things about living in Chicago and bad things about living in Chicago. One of the best things about it is this time of year. The air is crisp and fresh, almost justifying people who hang their laundry in front of their garage to dry. The colors are beyond breathtaking, and the fire pits permeates the night air making me feel like one big s’more.

If you have a bike and live in a color infested state (that’s what I’m going to call states with beautiful fall foliage), then you’ve got to hit a trail this weekend. Next weekend may be too late. If you don’t have a bike, check the stores, I bet they’re on sale now. I picked up a bike at Costco that is one of my favorite ones to date for just $250. That may sound a lot to some of you, but it’s honestly a great deal for a bike. The thing runs so smoothly, I can pedal half as fast as most people I ride with because the tires are big, and it fits in the back seat of my car when I remove the front tire and the seat.

I decided to hit the trails yesterday on one such pretty days with my friend April. She’s a mature rider, and goes pretty fast, so I was excited about the work out we’d be getting while at the same time getting a glimpse of fall trees. We hit the trail and started pedaling. We were clipping along and rode out about 15 miles within an hour. My legs were starting to burn, but that’s a good thing.

It was beautiful and smooth and I’d never felt so good.

We made it to Algonquin, stopped at the gas station, had a Gatorade, and reflected over the great day we had picked. Nothing stood in our way and we hopped back on the bikes for the return ride home. We anticipated it would be a piece of cake.

We started biking and made it about half way back home when my legs started aching. Not one to show any signs of weakness, I pedaled harder. I got my rhythm back. The wind was behind us – even better!

And then we hit our unforeseen obstacle: a school full of kids on a nature walk. It was horrible. It was unexpected. It was slow. It was tedious. It knocked any sense of rhythm away from me. It was one of those things I could never have predicted and seemed to go on forever.

We almost ran over a few of em along the way. But that wouldn’t be smart, I kept reminding myself. We mumbled about them. We complained about their unattentive chaperones. We plowed through them one by agonizingly painful one.

And it got me thinking about the Christian walk. We start off excited, fresh, ready. We pedal our hearts out for Jesus, things feel good. We figure we’ve got our rhythm down. We push harder, get involved in church activities, we sing praises as we watch God’s handiwork all around us. We hit occasional spots where we may feel tired or burnt out, but we just take a couple of weeks off “serving”. We take a vacation. We may even go a year without a Small Group to regroup in a personal way. Then we get back at it, excited, pedaling harder.

Until we hit some major obstacle. It comes out of nowhere. For some of us it could be personal – an illness, or some bad news. For others it may be related to someone else close to us – a bad decision that has impacted us greatly, the economy, a boss who’s been difficult to deal with.

The obstacle is huge. It’s unexpected, and it seems never ending.

And it almost rips our joy away.

Here’s a word of encouragement to you: the trial you are facing is not meant to last forever.

Eventually we passed every single kid in the school and finished our ride well. In the big scheme of things, the kids covered about 1/20th of our ride. We got better at weaving through them, and honestly, biking slower gave me a chance to rest my legs and get a slower look at the foliage.

Your trials will not last forever. They will definitely annoy you, but when all’s said and done, they will eat up just a short portion of your time, and they will teach you things along the way.

Don’t give in to discouragement if you hit an unforeseen trial. Don’t let your mind doubt the love that God has for you. The road is going to clear up soon.

Just keep pedaling.

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