Hills and Winds

The hills that I used to ride my bicycle over “back east” were sometimes pretty tough. However, with those hills there was always a top to focus on. Even if you could not see it because it was around a curve you knew that it was there; an end to the pain and screaming in the legs. One thing you had to learn though was sometimes what you thought was the top was actually just short of it and if you let up you could loose momentum that you needed. The answer to that was to “ride over the top”. You needed to keep pedaling, no matter how relieved you were that you had made it to the top, until you were changing gears indicating that you were truly on the level or maybe even descending. The point of all of this is that no matter how tough the hill was you knew that somewhere fairly close there was some relief.

A couple of days ago I went for a fairly long ride that went straight up Interstate 35 North on the access rode. I was planning on riding about 20 miles or so and then start looking for a turn around to head back to Cotulla on the other side of the interstate. The big issue was there was a wind coming out of the North at about 20 – 25 miles an hour. It was constant and unforgiving and the more I squinted to see I could find no relief in the long straight road ahead of me. Finally at about the spot that I had planned to make my turn around I began to see the rise of an overpass that indicated my chance to turn around and get that wind in my back. IT WAS NICE!

I have found that life is like both of these rides at times. There seems to be times that the terrain of our everyday life is short tough hills. We expend a lot of physical, mental and spiritual energy but we are usually able to see an end and therefore buckle down and ride to the top where we find some relief and peace. Then there are those times when we simply face a heavy head wind that seems unending and relentless. The harder we look the less we seem to see an end to the effort we are expending just to survive. It seems like all we can do is put our head down and keep our path as straight as possible.

I am not exempt from either ride and neither are you but we one who goes along with us. In fact His word promises that he will never leave or forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:8 NIV). In fact it is often those hills and rides in the wind that make the other times so wonderful and those small hills or slight winds so much easier to handle.

Thank you Lord for your guidance and presence when life’s ride starts becoming a challenge. Give me the strength to keep peddling through those times. I will give you all the praise and glory.