Being out-of-doors expands my heart. It sets me free. My thoughts are clearer. God feels nearer. The air is bigger to breathe. I never go outside just to “be outside”. I am always searching for something – a little solitude, a little freedom, a little more vitality, a little more of God. And I am never disappointed. Whether on the Appalachian Trail, or on white water, or working in the yard, or riding my bike around my neighborhood, I always return from outside with a sweaty brow, a pounding heart, and thoughts spilling forth. Just like this morning.

Peddling and pushing myself around my neighborhood, I find myself once again thankful for my kind friend who gave me the sweet bike I am riding. It’s a Trek, quite an upgrade from any bike I have owned in the past. The gears shift smoothly. Nothing clunks. It doesn’t weigh two hundred pounds. It’s a pretty sweet ride. As I increase my speed, and my heart rate, I find myself remembering my former bikes. I have owned many. All were Walmart specials. They all clunked. All weighed two hundred pounds. And all carried me on countless miles of pursuit and salvation until they could roll no more. As I ride my Trek this morning, I realize that each Wally Wonder offered me something more than a ride. They offered me the chance to be free and strong and persistent on – or perhaps because of – their unwieldy, ungracious, and often uncooperative backs. Their very nature forced me to dig deeper to succeed. To find joy.

And now the clarity of the outdoor air comes. I know God is speaking. Encouraging.
Reminding.

“It is the hard things, Pam. It is the struggling with the uphill. It is the pressing through the difficult that brings the strength to your body – and your soul. It is the finding of joy in the absence of ease that teaches you to live. And in the hard, I have never left you; I have not forsaken you.”

I know in a thousand ways that this is true. I have lived this in a thousand ways. It has been the challenges; it has been the heartbreak; it has been the conflict of my story that has forced me to choose to live, to choose perseverance, to choose forgiveness and joy. A cushy life would not have cut it for me. So on this morning as I enjoy and appreciate the ride of a well crafted bike, and a season in life that has offered me more joy than I have yet known, I pay homage to my old friends, my mentors, the unwieldy agents of God’s grace and growing of me.

Long may they run~