It has been unseasonably warm here in West Michigan, and it has been fun to see everyone out and about enjoying SPRING!!! Of course, we knew it was too good to last, and so now we are shivering with anticipation at a forecast for next week that shows highs in the 40's. Uggh....
That is then, however, and this is now, and so now, while it is nice, we must do things! This calls for another bicycle ride. The Musketawa Trail crosses my road about a mile from where I live. This is a "rails to trails" initiative that produced a trail 24 miles long, beginning here in Muskegon and ending in Marne. I have only ridden the length of the trail one time, last summer, right before Aaron headed off to boot camp, and I decided that yesterday, since it was my day off, this would be a good day to go.
I was especially excited about the 10-15 mph winds that had been blowing from the west all week, since I was heading east. Imagine my disappointment yesterday morning to get on my bike and find that they had shifted and were now blowing at 15-20 mph from the EAST!!!! It was slow going, to say the least, and I did not make it to Marne. I rode as far as Ravenna, the halfway point, and then turned around to head for home.
The ride to Ravenna was ROUGH. The ride back was a BLAST!
Now I know I've already written about bicycle rides and winds and the Holy Spirit and all that stuff, but as I was riding yesterday I couldn't help think about things like perseverance, stubbornness, persistence, tenacity, etc. As my right knee was screaming in pain as I pushed against the wind I found myself speculating about the difference between stubbornness that produces growth and stubbornness that produces harm. There is a discipline that helps strengthen us to battle against obstacles, but then there are obstacles that are put before us to keep us from harming ourselves.
I'm not sure that, spiritually, I am always able to tell the difference, between the obstacles I'm supposed to overcome and the obstacles I'm supposed to avoid.
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4 comments:
The obstacles we're suppose to overcome and the obstacles we're suppose to avoid, are the same obstacles we keep snagging our toes on as we try to jump over them...to know the difference? Ya got me...
What a fascinating picture. I feel like, either way, I'm going to end up falling on my face. Perhaps that's as it should be?
That's kind of where I find myself most of the time, on my face. But then God's hand reaches down and picks me up and kicks my butt onto the next obstacle...which is usually higher and wider.
I had the opportunity to talk about this yesterday morning with the community here, and the picture of the obstacle on which we snag our toes seemed to resonate with them. Thank you for that metaphor--it's been very helpful to a lot of people.
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