New Adventure

Well here we go again. It has been several months since my last post. I very much appreciate those who followed my last trip across the Ga/NC mountains. What an adventure! It really set my soul on fire for seeing the world on a bike. Many people wrote me wanting that concluding entry for what I learned on my trip. Truth is....it took me a while to process the event.

I must first confess that I was spiritually in a very dry place during that ride. The ride itself was an attempt to "find myself" so to speak. During the Spring of 08 I had been involved deep inside the belly of the church planting a new worship service in downtown Atlanta at Atlanta First Methodist. I felt burned out and overwhelmed with the business of looking for fruit from our labors. Somewhere in doing God's work I had lost God, and felt very much like those around me had as well. I thought perhaps I might rediscover God on that trip.

In many respects I did rediscover God. Certainly I had some hair raising moments where I relied on His provisions. Certainly I saw Him in the faces of some the people I met along the way. Certainly I saw Him in the natural beauty of the mountains. Yet, somehow I came away from the ride really not taking me to the place I wanted to go spiritually. The experience purely from a cycling stand point was amazing. But I sought something much more profound the pedaling.

But things post ride slowly began to turn. I gave up leadership responsibility for the worship service and began to just show up, play drums and worship. I began not to look for God in the attendance but rather in the faces. I began to grow more comfortable just being, instead of doing. I think the mindset from the ride helped me very much in that regard. Each day during the ride I was forced to just exist on the merits of just that day....no more or no less. I began to apply that attitude to my faith, and really my life as whole. I began to grow more surrendered without expectation and satisfied without frustration....but it was a process.

Recently I heard a friend say, "we are called to look at the vine, not the fruit." That statement became the culmination of months of God bringing me out of the desert....a journey that started, not concluded, on my bike trip.

Tuesday I start a new adventure. This time I will ride the bike to Florida. I suspect the trip will in many respects be quite different from the first. First, it will be flat most of the way. Second, I will be covering more distance in less days. But most of all, I am not riding to find my way out of the desert this time. My walk with God is truly back on track. I don't know exactly what God has in store this time around. Last time I went looking for answers, only to find the trip set off more questions. This time I go looking for nothing other than just being in His grip. I am totally surrendered........watch out......that is usually when He reveals himself in the most powerful ways. Stay tuned in.......we'll share it together.