Being Still for 100 miles

I finished a 100-mile bicycle ride yesterday, and learned a few things along the way.  The ride was to raise money to support the John Wayne Cancer Foundation, in honor of my good friend Darryl, who was diagnosed with lung cancer last year.  All the lessons I learned from riding 100 miles also apply to fighting cancer and – even more importantly, to being still.

I wasn’t prepared for this ride, but I had committed to riding it.  I figured the only way I might make it was to take it slow but steady, and rely on God’s grace to overcome my failings.  I first witnessed this technique by watching my friend, CC, run the Big Sur marathon at Monterey.  She intentionally took her time – walking, talking, taking pictures, stretching every minute out of the race.  It reminded me of Thoreau “I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately, I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, To put to rout all that was not life and not when I had come to die discover that I had not lived.”  It seemed to me that CC ran in such a way that when she “came to the finish line” she would not discover that she had not lived along the way.  She sucked the marrow out of every mile she ran, and she loved it!

So, I adopted this approach, and started off with the goal of riding 100 miles in 9 ½ hours, or run out of time trying.  I took pictures, I talked with people, I stopped and stretched.  Here’s what I learned along the way:

1. You see some beautiful scenery during the journey.  Sunrise, sunset, hawks, blooming ocotillo, badland desert.  It’s even better when you stop, take a minute to truly appreciate it and become part of it.  In the process, I generated experiences and memories that I would have otherwise missed had I been focused on the finish line or on how much I was hurting.  So often in life we seem to be focused on other things.  We focus on out goals.  We focus on our pain and hurting.  In the process, we miss God’s creation.
2. You meet some amazing people along the way.  There’s something awesome about being at the “back of the pack”.  You develop a camaraderie that comes from knowing what the other fellow is going through – knowing that what YOU are going through you are not going through alone.  Robert is an amazing man I met along the road.  He’s been bicycling for only 4 months (compared to my 20+ years) and was riding in tennis shoes and on flat pedals (not even toe-clips) compared to my “latest” equipment.  He made it – what an inspiration.  If I hadn’t slowed down and said “hi”, I’d be a poorer man because of it.  The same is true in life.  We are not alone, unless we choose to be.  And if we take the time to look around us, we’ll find that there are many others sharing the journey.  We’ll find that we share the same hurts and the same dreams.  We’ll find that they come from different backgrounds and that their stories can inspire us (and God willing, maybe our story will inspire them).
3. Use the rest-stops.  Every rest-stop was a blessing.  A chance to eat, stretch, rest, and be served.  To go 100 miles, most of us need to rest along the way, and all of us – even the most seasoned athlete – need to take care of ourselves.  Seems like more and more there’s no “margin” in our lives.  We cram every minute with something to do.  God made a Sabbath day and told us to observe it.  He didn’t design it as a day to “not do anything”, but as a “rest-stop” along the way.  A chance to eat, stretch, rest.  I tend to get “weepy” when I hit “the wall”.  So at the 90 mile rest-stop I found myself choking back tears as a young lady filled my water bottle for me.  There’s something incredibly humbling and grace-filled about allowing someone to serve you.   It is a blessing to you, but also a blessing to them that you would accept their service with thanksgiving, recognizing it for what it is.  There is no sin in needing someone’s help, or even allowing them to serve you.  There is sin in expecting it, and there is also sin in refusing it.  In both cases that sin is pride.
4. Riding on the painted white line is easiest.  Basically, there’s less friction so it’s easier to pedal.  Now, that’s a pretty narrow line.  And as I’ve said in other blogs, what you focus on is where you go.  That means you need to look ahead and follow the line.  If you get off it, it’s harder going.  If you get too far off, you’re in the sand and not going anywhere.  Life is like that, too.  There is a path of least resistance.  It is the one that God has set out for you, and if you stray you’ll find yourself working harder than you need to.  I think that’s what happens when we try to make our own way.  We might still be going in the general direction God intends for us to go, but we’re doing it on our own strength instead of relying on His grace and mercy.  And of course, you can get completely off the path – for there is, really, only one way to the finish line.
5. Don't leave anyone behind.  One potential downside to this method is you can get focused on time.  "Do I have enough time to get to the finish line before the cut-off?"  I was 1 mile from the finish line, with 45 minutes to go.  No problem.  But there was a rider by the side of the road.  As I rode by, I asked if everything was alright.  He called out he had a flat.  Now past him, I asked "Do you need any help?"  And he replied....yes.  I was tempted to go on.  I was worried that if I stopped and helped, I wouldn't make it to the finish on time.  But I stopped.  We chatted while I changed his tire.  Someone else stopped, too.  We finished changing the tire.  All three of us finished the race, when only two would have made the cut-off had we not stopped.  In life, we need to ask the people on the roadside if they need help, and we need to be willing to give it.  More importantly, we need to take as many people with us to the finish line - and let me be perfectly clear I'm talking about heaven - as we can.  We do that by stopping along the way and sharing Jesus, for He is "our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in the times of trouble" (Psalm 46:1.  While you're there, check out verse 10....)
6. Finishing is great, but finishing well is better.  There are some people that crossed the finish line 5 hours before I did.  I can’t know for sure that they didn’t enjoy the ride, but I can say for sure that I got to enjoy 5 more hours of it than they did.  I think Paul understood this when he said to the Hebrews “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:1).

So, how to sum this up?  Sometimes being still is more about being content with the journey than with worrying about getting to the finish.  It is in that journey learn how to overcome pain, focus beyond ourselves, accept help, form new relationships, and stay on the path.  In short, it is in the journey that we live.

God bless.