I was browsing some bicycle sites the other day and saw the following quote:
Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving. Albert Einstein
A lot of riding a bike is balance. Kids lack that balance and so we start them out with training wheels. No parent in their right mind would take their child to a bike store, buy the most expensive bike, hand it to their child and say, “Here. Have at it.” We start small with training wheels until eventually they feel comfortable enough to do without them. Even then it is a chore tiring sweat-inducing labor to get them to keep their balance and ride upright. But they learn quickly that they have to keep moving or they will go down.
Sort of reminds me of following Jesus. Standing still in the same place is not in the cards (unless it is a learning time and God slows you down). The Christian life is one of movement, of constantly changing. It is a struggle to balance my work, family, leisure, study, church, etc. John Eldredge has this quote in his book, Wild At Heart: “The spiritual life was never made to be suburban. It is always frontier, and we who live in it must accept and even rejoice that it remains untamed.” I agree and that can only happen if we are moving and not stagnant.
So…tell me. Are you moving? Ahead that is. Do you have any thoughts on what I have written? I would like to hear from you.
Bill,
I agree that we need to keep moving, my problem is trying to ride multiple bikes at the same time.
God willing I will be done with school in July. After having a wonderful break from class for two weeks, I can see how great things will be once school stops being one of my “bikes”.
I don’t know if that made sense, time to get back to the books.
Ken
I hate to take analogies too far, so I’m not going to. Rather I’ll just say there must be some analogy to the following:
When I first started becoming a little more serious about riding a bike, I noticed that some guys would not unclip their feet at stop lights. Rather they would balance there until the light changed. And it took a lot of hours and a lot of practice to get to that point myself.
Ken: understand what you are saying. Like trying to ride two unicycles at the same time. Hopefully you will be done and only pedaling one. 🙂
James: I see others do that but I have never even tried. I have to remember to unclip as it is. 🙂 I stand 6’5″ and ride a 64cm bike so if I go down I go down a long way. Safer for me to unclip one pedal. but three is an analogy about the need for practice and long hours learning to do something. May have to blog about that some day. Thanks for being a first time visitor and leaving a comment.
cycleguy,
i’ve enjoyed browsing your site — i enjoy reading Christianity and cycling in the same blog. two of my favorite things to do / discuss…
Well james glad to hear that you have been here. Hope you aren’t disappointed. Please feel free to chime in any time. Hope to hear more from you in the future.
Ekkkkk!And herein lies the problem. Me and moving. I’m so often hunkered down in protective mode, or paralyzed in fear mode…yep Bill, that’s an issue for me. And this could also be the reason I only ride stationary bikes in spin class.
Ouch.
i ride one of those animals in the winter. I find it boring but at least I am “moving.” I will continue praying dangerous prayers for you Robin. Thanks for taking the time to comment.