Mountain biking has become a new passion of mine since the early fall of 2016. I haven’t gotten all the way into it quite yet so far, although this coming spring, I plan on getting more gear and spending a lot more time on the trails.

With the snow, cold weather and a popped tube, I was set off my game for about a month or so. I didn’t want that to go on any longer so this past Saturday, I decided that whatever the weather looked like, I was going out. 

Well, what Saturday brought me was a little bit of this:

It doesn’t look too bad from this vantage point, but after some close calls, spinning tires on the up hill climes and my chest nearly burning in peridox to the blisteringly cold weather, this was the moment I turned around. 

It more then one way, I hated the ride; the worst so far I’ve ever experienced, but I don’t regret taking the trip. I don’t regret it because I did it. I told myself I would and I did. Also, because I felt like I was dosing my touch on the bike and I was. I got back into grips with the whole thing, but I also learned some practicals.

1. Like riding a bike, life flies passed so much faster then you’d like, the more thrilling and fun it is, the faster it goes by. The warning to this is if we loose track of our terrain, we can wind up in terrible pain, but if we don’t enjoy the little things along the way, we can find ourselves at the end wondering what even really happened and how we got to this place.
2. Pain is temporary. The easy way is always available, but it’s not always rewarding. Risk the pain and you’ll get it, but enough tries and you will succeed. Risk nothing and you will possibly never find joy and always come out with a sense of meaninglessness.
3. When you’re doing something positive and uplifting, you get positive and uplifting results, but when life around gets busy and we push aside the those important things aside, we find ourselves longing for something meaningful, but when we remember those things, if it’s mountain biking, or serving others, or getting in devotions, or eating well, and when we get back into them, we find restoration to our bodies and also restoration to our spirits! 

My encouragement is to push through the things you know you need to do that are hard. They might not always be enjoyable, but you will be rewarded!