The Bike Ride of our Life

Today we went on another bike ride. We headed out from the mall where we left the truck. Immediately, we had the good fortune to come upon a group of cyclists called the Knickerbikers. It would have been fun to ride with them, as they were following a route from the J Street marina over toward Otay Lakes, but we already had an idea of where we wanted to ride.

We wanted to try a little "off roading" and follow the power lines to see where they might lead. We soon discovered that we were heading down into a valley. At first the rush downhill was fun, but we got a little concerned when we continued to head down hill realizing that sooner or later we would need to head back up. We had an idea to follow a path that we saw at the bottom that would hopefully take us out of the valley another way.

Unfortunately, when we got to the bottom, there was no connection to the path that we could see in the distance. In fact, we realized that it was a dead end. We headed off in another direction still trying to find a way to the path that we wanted to take. At some points we had to get off our bikes and walk as the hill was just to steep to pedal up and at other points we were heading down hill so fast it was scary.

It was then out there in the middle of no where that I realized how this bike ride was so similar to our lives right now. For example, we could have ridden with the pack but we chose to go our own way. So true in our lives as we have followed a very different life path than those around us. Personally, we too have come so very close to the bottom and how desperately we are searching for that path that would take us up again. The path was there, we could see but somehow not get to it. Just like the bike ride, in our lives we had tried several paths, sometimes I led, sometimes he led. He saw things that I didn't see and vise versa. Together we tried to get back on top, but just can't seem to find the way. At some points we had to back track a little, but eventually we did get out.

In our life we have not found the way out of the valley just yet. I guess we need to keep trying, stick together and take turns leading. And remember that with faith we will find our way. Maybe where we want to go is not where he wants us to go, but he will show us the way. It seems clear to me that this the bike ride came at an opportune time. This was the the Ride of our Life.