Uphill, Against the Wind

Let me tell you about the training rides I’ve done in the last few days. 

Saturday.  After checking the hourly forecast, we determined that late afternoon would be the optimum time for biking.  We trudged along against the wind, finding it hard to determine if we were truly riding against the wind or if it was more of a side wind.  The partly cloudy skies turned fully cloudy and by the time we turned around, our suspicions were actualized and we road against  the wind on the way back as well.  By the time we finished the ride, it was 38 degrees.  Brrrrrr.

Monday.  It was cold with 25 mph winds; so I did what any Iowa girl would do.  I figured out how to set up my bike on our newly acquired, used trainer, and I road in the garage for 45 minutes. 

Tuesday.   4:15 p.m.  Mostly sunny.  48 degrees.  Not bad.  I set out only to realize a mile down the road that I forgot my water bottle.  After retracing my route, I finally found my cadence as I left town 15 minutes later.  And what a comfortable cadence it was with the wind!  Of course that means I was against the wind on my return trip.  I fought to maintain 6 mph on the steeper hills.  Had I gone much slower I might have tipped! 

Partway up the second hill I noticed my mind kicking into an I-can-do-this-how-am-I-going-to-do-this mode.  I mentally counted how many hills there were yet to climb.  (I’m going to need that strategy this summer.  People have been posting comments—a.k.a. warnings—about some of the climbs on our route through Arizona and Colorado.)  I found myself thinking about the people for whom we are riding, fellow human beings living every day in poverty.  My hills became metaphors for their days.  And my days.

Each hill, a day. 

Uphill, against the wind. 

The down-hills, maybe a short reprieve.

On days like today, even the down-hills take work.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the Kingdom of God lately.  Yesterday I told my Biblical Foundations class that Jesus’s life gives us a picture of what his Kingdom looks like—coming on earth as it is in heaven.   Sure, He prayed the prayer; but He didn’t just pray.  He also did the work of healing and restoration.  That's what the Kingdom looks like--acts of healing and restoration.  That's what we are a part.  We are to be about the business of demonstrating the Kingdom of God here on earth as it is in heaven.  That's why we're riding Sea to Sea this summer.

It strikes me as I ride uphill, against the wind today, that we’re not just riding to fight the cycle of poverty.  We’re riding to embody the prayer, “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”  Each day.  Another hill.  Same prayer.  Your Kingdom come.

It feels good to be on the bike again.  I feel my muscles strengthening, my endurance lengthening, and my eyes being opened each day.  Thanks for joining me.