Guess what day it is?  It’s Thursday again and that means it’s my day off!!  🙂  Woo Hoo!  So today I decided it would be a GREAT day for a mommy get-away bike ride!  Since we’ve had this beautiful spring weather lately, I decided to take Daisy (some of you might remember from previous blogs that “Daisy” is my bike!) out for a ride!  So, after happily taking the kiddos to school, I ever-so-gently CRAMMED Daisy into the back of my car and headed for the trail!

Now, this may sound silly to some, but in my mind, I pictured myself biking at a somewhat leisurely pace along a nice flat paved trail.  Picture Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy in the Muppet Movie!  There would be birds singing, flowers blooming and some bees gently buzzing by off in the distance.  From somewhere probably beautiful, a gentle breeze would blow my hair back as I pedaled on…and it would be glorious! Simply glorious!

Unfortunately… somehow in my daydream, I guess I had forgotten to factor in all the many hills that are along the trail, and before too long I found myself in REALITY huffing and puffing up some treacherous mountain range instead! 😉  Did I take a wrong turn?  Was I heading up Mt. Diablo by mistake??  Sadly, no.  Were there birds singing or bees buzzing?  Ummm….that I don’t know…because all I could hear was my own loud panting and gasping for air!  Are you wondering if there were flowers blooming?  I really can’t say that I saw much other than the pavement up ahead as I’d track how much further to the summit!!  There WAS, however, that gentle breeze…ahhh yes, there it was…because I could feel it blowing through my sweaty helmet hair when I’d stop to breathe.

But I found that if I stopped occasionally to drink water, eat a bite of granola bar and rest a bit, I could keep going.  It was like I had “powered up”.

Daisy is not made for this type of bike ride.  She’s heavy and sturdy…and well, she has a cute little basket that isn’t that light especially when it’s full of my layers of clothing that got stripped off along the way.  She’s made for one purpose, and that is to simply look cute on rides to the Farmer’s Market, possibly with a small puppy riding in the basket and me wearing sandals, a skirt and a sunhat!  She’s not made for “real” bike riding adventures such as this!!   I wanted to cry out to the other bikers (the REAL bikers) that kept effortlessly passing by us, “What was I thinking??”

But today, even though I felt like quitting so many times, I just kept telling myself to push through it.  I’m doing this thing lately, where I’m trying to “train my brain” (in life and in exercise), not to quit.  You see, as hard as it was to pedal uphill for so long, I just kept thinking about how this is like my life (all of our lives) sometimes.  We’re on this “uphill” season and it feels SO incredibly long, but we’re almost there and we can see the top now! We don’t want to quit.  If we keep trusting God, taking breaks to rest up and refresh in His presence, and hold steady to and continue to stand on God’s promises for our lives, we will get to the top!  It might even be worth it!! 😉

Eventually, Daisy and I DID reach the top and you know what happened next?  You know that expression that says, “what goes up must come down?”  Well, we got to come down!  Do you bike ride?  If not, did you ride as a kid?  Do you remember the feeling of biking down a hill SO SUPER fast that your stomach flip flops?  It’s absolutely exhilarating!!  As I biked down the steepest hills on the trail, I could feel the exhilaration tingle through my whole body!!!  I even heard myself squealing and saying out loud, “THIS was SO worth it!!”  The wind seemed to carry us as we zoomed down with such speed that I think both Daisy and I were shocked that she had it in her! It was like we were flying!!

I wish I could type this with more emphasis than capital letters:  It was SO WORTH THE LONG CLIMB!!!

THIS was indeed my reward!

Instantly I felt God on that trail with me.  Must be why I felt so alive!  His love swept in with the breeze as we sailed down the hills, and He reminded me then and there that this “climb” we’ve been on in our life journey right now will be so worth it when we see what He has in store!!  Isn’t God so awesome!  He shows up when we least expect it!  Not just a bike ride anymore, but suddenly I had renewed hope for the days ahead.

Is life BEYOND tough right now and you want to give up?  Please don’t.  God is there with you, just as He was with me on this amazing ride! I’d like to think you’re reading this right now just so God can remind you that He’s got you in the palm of His hand…and if you put your trust in Him, letting Him simply love on you, He will see you through anything.  Nothing is too hard for Him!  “I am the Lord, the God of all the peoples of the world.  Is anything too hard for Me?” (Jeremiah 32:27).  See?  Told ya! 😉

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.”