The Bike Ride Journey - In Conclusion

  We just got back from Irvine (southern California) tonight from our oldest Granddaughter's graduation.  Pictures posted at the end of the conclusion below. 

    

The Journey - Conclusion

        This has been the story of a bike ride.  But it is more than that.  It is a journey on which God has taken me and through the process of this journey He has taught me many things.  I learned how really weak I am, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  How I am just like the children of Israel, grumbling and complaining, even though the Lord was with me every step of the way.  This experience taught me how important it is to come along side of other Christians in need, and how encouragement from others lifts the soul and allows one to soar as if on eagle’s wings.   I learned that when we pray in the will of God, He will give us what we want and need.  It has taught me, at least for this instance, what the will of God was.  I learned that God is Holy; God is Great and to God Be the Glory.  The glory does not go to me for my longs months of tortuous training and perseverance or even for completing the three-day bike ride.  The glory goes to God because of what He accomplished through me.  I have learned that I must be obedient and be a willing vessel for the Potter to mold and shape, as He will.  I am learning that I must obey and not argue about everything He asks me to do.  I haven’t succeeding completely in the latter, but I am working on it.  I also learned that even though we may feel that we are not suitable or up to the challenge to complete the Lord’s tasks, I know that when God calls us, He equips us.  Even me! Most of all, I have learned that I cannot hide my light (that which God has done in my life) under a bushel (Matthew 5:14-16).   I have to tell the story so that others may see His mighty works.  I have no idea why God chose me to make this bike ride.  I do know that for every rider in the various bike rides during the eighteen months, there was a special story.  The riders represented many states in these United States, and some even rode more than one ride.  Some rode because they thought it would be challenging, or fun, or because they had always wanted to be part of a ride such as this one.  Many rode to raise money for Focus on the Family and God called many specifically and for His purposes.  My story is no more special than the stories of the other riders.  But mine is special to me because it belongs to me and to the Lord and because it was a significant emotional, physical and spiritual event in my life, the likes of which I may never see again. 

            As with all human beings, we tell a story based on our perspective.  Most of us have been with family members who had been in the same room when a certain incident occurred.  Later, when re-telling the story, perhaps everyone but one person remembers it the same way.  But there is usually one who remembers the story differently, based on their personality, the dynamics of the family, their mood at the time or various other (dimensions; aspects) which enter into the equation.  They may have remembered an entirely different story than the rest of the family remembers.   I tell this story as I have remembered and to my best ability I have recorded it, based on my perspective.

        I think that this story is not only one for Christians to read because it shows the power of God in our lives and what can be accomplished by the Holy Spirit guiding us, even when we are braced with our feet pushed out in front of us like a stubborn donkey. But it is also a story for those who do not know Christ because it shows them just what they too can accomplish when they know Jesus and also shows them the thrill and joy of knowing Him.  I waited almost ten years to write this story and did so only because I felt that God wished me to put to paper my experiences with Him.  At this writing, At the outset, I didn’t have any idea whether or not anyone will ever read this story.  It may be just for me.  I dedicate it to the power and glory of my Lord God, my Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit who resides in me.  My thanks also go to all those who helped me along the way by riding with me, encouraging me and just being there for support.  The words of the old hymn sums it all up for me.  To God be the glory great things He has done! Amen









Barb, Taylor, Bob
Taylor graduated from high school in Irvine, California

In the photo below, look what Bob and I started - population explosion.
We're missing our son's wife Morena and our youngest daughter's husband Danny.





Barb and two month old Samuel (He's already over 16 pounds in two months.)

Thank you all for following my story.  I appreciate having an outlet to share this with someone. I feel that I don't have anything more to add or share so this will be my last post.

I will continue to follow many of your blogs - keep up the good work.

Barb

 



Tuesday, June 14th

We're here in southern California for our oldest granddaughter Taylor's high school graduation.  I had one more post to complete the bike ride story and cannot get my external hard drive to work on my daughter Leslie 's computer.  The hard drive contains what I had already written up, so I'll have to wait until Friday when I get home. Tomorrow I'll post some of the pictures from today of the family.  We have all our kids and grandkids together - we're only missing Danny, Laurel's husband who had to stay home and couldn't get off work.

Come back tomorrow.

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN – INSTALLMENT TEN

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN – INSTALLMENT TEN

         God uses us as we are, meets as where we are at the moment. We are God’s creation and he made each of us in his likeness but with individual strengths, talents, personalities.  At one time in my life I decided I wanted to be like a woman I knew – soft-spoken, quiet, gentle and kind.  I told myself I could change and be that way.  I got in trouble in school my throughout my entire school years for talking.  The only thing that saved me was that I was a good student.  I decided I would speak slowly and quietly and try not to talk often.   Yes I can learn to be quieter and listen more to others rather than talk all the time.  I can learn to be gentler and kinder, but I’ll never be soft-spoken and quiet.  God didn’t make me that way.  I tried, Lord knows.  But I tried on my own.  An example of different personalities that the Lord used was Peter and John.  Peter was impulsive and quick to speak, often without thinking first.  John was more thoughtful and saw deeper into Jesus’ ministry.   I am impulsive and  more of a Martha, the busy one who was upset with her sister Mary because Martha had to fix the meal for Jesus and the disciples by her self.  Mary wasn’t helping.  She was sitting at Jesus’ feet and listening to Him.   So, unless  our Lord decides to zap me and make me different, and I I don’t believe he’s going to do that I’ll probably be more like Martha.  But I can also learn to be more like Mary and sit more at Jesus feet than just be doing and doing and doing. We can all change and become more Christ-like.  When Jesus walked on this earth as a man, the people could follow Him and listen to Him, but when He died He was resurrected and went to heaven to be with His Father.  So that He would not leave us here on earth to be alone and fend for ourselves, He sent the Holy Spirit to be our guide, our comforter and our teacher.  It is only through the power of the Holy Spirit working in us that we can really change.

        This bike ride was only a small fragment of my journey – a part intended by God to “grow me up”!  I’m still not there yet nor will be in this life but at least I’m finally out of the “high chair” and running along side of Him who sustains me.

         Monday will be the last posting of the bike ride journey.  On Tuesday, I will tell the story of how God healed the hearing of a small child that I am acquainted with and how he impressed upon me the need to learn sign language and teach Bible Study to the deaf.

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN – INSTALLMENT NINE

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN – INSTALLMENT NINE

        I look back at my college years when I had to be my own boss and in control of my life,  at least I thought so at the time because I hadn’t accepted Jesus as my own.  God was still in control even though I thought I was.   The hard part of thinking I was in control was that I was a young girl, only 17 when I went to the University. I had lived a very sheltered life.  The temptations were huge and difficult to maneuver.  I cherish that God has been giving me his grace, mercy and kindness through the years, even when I wasn’t receptive or know that He was there.  He was there all the time.  It wasn’t until 1979 when I went on a church retreat  to the mountains with some ladies in Hughson that I realized that these ladies had something that I didn’t have and I knew I wanted what they had.  That ingredient in their lives that was missing in mine was Jesus Christ.  Sure, I knew about Him.  I knew and believed that He died on the cross to save me.  I had even been baptized as a child, but I was missing one important part of the equation.  That was asking forgiveness of my sins, turning away from those sins (repenting) and asking Jesus to be Lord of my life so that we could have a personal relationship.  A real relationship – up close and so very personal.  At the time, April of 1979,  I did ask Jesus to become my personal Savior and help me to live my life for Him.    After many times of really following him for a time, then putting him on the back burner, getting enthused again and trying so hard to follow, I have finally reached a time in my life of peace and comfort with Him.  It was there all along for me to reach out and take.  I just kept letting “me” get in the way.   I am now in the best time of life.  I’m 66 and who knows when the end of my life will be.  My husband and I are facing some difficult times ahead because of health issues, but I know we’ll lean on the Lord and he’ll bring us through the other side.  Could I have learned all the lessons I did if God had not directed me to train and take part of the bike ride?  I believe the answer is “yes”.  God would have used another way to get my attention.

    

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN – INSTALLMENT EIGHT

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN – INSTALLMENT EIGHT

     Another thing I learned during the biking experience is that God is in control.  Most of us believe that we are in control of our lives.  We’ve been taught such things as, “Pull yourself up by the bootstraps,” and other such helpful clichés.   I remember that in one Bible Study I did years ago, the author wrote about this subject.  She asked us to picture her sitting in the back seat of the car with a child’s steering wheel toy attached in front of her to the back of the passenger front seat.  As the car twisted and turned on a curvy road, she turned the wheel frantically, but the car seemed to go in the opposite direction.  She became nervous and upset because the steering wheel was not responding to her.  Then she looked up and saw that Jesus Christ was actually behind the wheel of the car and he was setting the course.

        Looking back now on the eighteen months of training and the three-day ride, I realize that I really had no control.  Sure, I forced myself to get on that bike each day and I’m the one who pedaled, but when one knows the whole story, one realizes that the Lord arranged everything – every lesson; every encouragement; every help. 

       God saw me through the process but it was a process.  I had to go through it, as miserable as it was during parts of it. I had to go through the valley to get to the mountain top experience.  It was a hot, dry valley and road the up the mountain was horrendous.  But there was joy and blessing all along the way.  All I had to do was take my eyes from myself and turn my focus to Jesus.  Do I hope that God will again tell me to ride in a 220 mile bike ride?  The answer is unequivocally NO!  Would I do it again if He asked me to do it? Unequivocally YES!  Would my attitude be better the next time around?  I would certainly hope so.  I would hope and pray that I would pray and hope for a change in attitude and that I would make myself more aware of His blessings each and every day.  I have learned that the words in Scripture that say, “I can do all things through Him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13) are not just empty words to be said as a “mantra”.  In the past there were times when I faced what I thought was impossible and I repeated this Scripture over and over thinking that the mere repetition would give me the strength.  But first I have to believe those words before they will come true.  I now believe with all my heart because I learned firsthand that an aging, overweight woman who had no physical training since high school and who had bad knees could accomplish the seemingly impossible.  I did accomplish the bike ride but not in my own strength – in the strength of Him who gives me that strength to accomplish His will in my life. You too can accomplish anything through the power of the Holy Spirit who works in you for the Lord Jesus Christ to those who love and obey Him.

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN – INSTALLMENT SEVEN

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN – INSTALLMENT SEVEN

Focus

        One thing that God taught me through the journey of the bike ride was “focus”.  In life, I tend to start many projects then get side-tracked, leaving project unfinished until a later time.  It is interesting that the name of the organization which had sponsored the bike ride is Focus on the Family or often times, just called Focus. I have heard many pastors, over the years preach on the Scripture about Jesus walking on the water.  Below is the Scripture regarding that episode.

Matthew 14 22-32

 ²² Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. ²³ After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, ²⁴ and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

 ²⁵ Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. ²⁶ When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
 ²⁷ But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
 ²⁸ “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
   ²⁹ “Come,” he said.
   Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. ³⁰ But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
 ³¹ Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
 ³² And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. ³³ Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
        The problem that Peter had was that he lost his focus.  He took his eyes off Jesus and onto himself and his fears. At the outset of the bike ride training, I saw the impossible.   In order for me to complete that task, it was essential that I took my eyes off myself and focused on the Lord.  I didn’t always do that as shown by my crying, complaining and whining.  But through it all, I could only be successful on a particular day when I stopped thinking about myself and placed my trust and my obedience in the Lord.  When my fears or pain in my knees caused me to believe that I would never finish the ride, I began to falter.  Each and every time I got to that point, the Lord would bring someone or something into my life which would change my perspective and bring me back to focus on the task at hand.  Dead birds was one thing he used to get me to focus on what was important – on His love for me and that He was with me at all times. 
         On the first day of the ride when I began to cry because of the excruciating pain in my knees and total discouragement that I would never make it to San Francisco, He brought an angel in the form of Terri to raise up the seat of my bike so that I could finish the ride.  As I type this, it just occurred to me that I had no more trouble with my knees the rest of the ride.  How strange that I am just realizing it now after almost ten years.  That shows me that I am still learning from that experience. 

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN – INSTALLMENT SIX

God was teaching me to trust him.       

        Through Scriptures which I studied after the bike ride, my spirits have been mercifully lifted. I have tended to dwell on the fact that I possessed a negative and whining attitude through the entire bike ride experience from beginning to end.   I have always realized that, yes, I obeyed God in accomplishing the day to day training and the bike ride itself.  God used his power to see that I was protected, that I progressed physically, that I had Lisa as a partner on the ride and that everything I needed was provided.  But, I accomplished the ride with a lousy attitude.  I complained and grumbled; I cried and carried on like a baby and a spoiled brat.  Did  my “stinkin’ thinking” negate my obedience? That thought has plagued me ever since that weekend in 2002 when I completed the bike ride.  The thought I now have is that even as I write this, God is still using that ride to teach me lessons; to show me things that I didn’t see before. This ride was not about the actual ride but it was a vehicle toward a greater purpose in my life.

       In 2 kings 5:1, 9-14 and in the book of Jonah, God shows us how He still worked in the lives of Naaman and Jonah even though their attitudes were deplorable. They did, however, after disobeying and expressing rotten attitudes, reverse their actions and obey God.  Because of their obedience, God worked a miracle in Naaman’s case, and saved the people of Nineveh because Jonah finally obeyed God and preached repentance to the people.  The king and the people repented thus savings themselves from destruction.  These lessons have helped me to understand that even though I did not have the right attitude, God could still use me to accomplish his goal in spite of me.   I do believe that if I would have had a right attitude from the start, I would have received blessing beyond measure and beyond which I can even imagine.

        Therefore, what have I learned here?  Next time God asks me to do a task for Him and if I find that my attitude is wrong – first I must go to Him and thank Him that He would use me and that He would change my heart.  Like the song says, “Change my heart O Lord, Make it ever true, Change my heart O Lord, Let me be like you.  I did sing that song over and over while out riding my bike but I did not pray that prayer at the outset.  It is my desire that I remember this lesson and that I pray first, next time.  I did ask Ann Rodriguez, the sweet woman from my church to pray for a change in my attitude while I was training in Hawaii and God did change it temporarily.  It shows me that I need to be in continual prayer for something, not just to pray it once and believe that the situation will be covered forever.  I need to take that problem to God on a daily basis as each situation occurs. I also now realize how important it is to be grateful for every little thing that God does for each and every one of us each day.  I need to be watchful so that I will see these things and listen for His still, quiet voice.

            I have learned that Abraham did not just begin with a great relationship with God or a perfect, obedient life.  He struggled along the way.  He was told twice by God to leave his family and go to a place that God would tell him.  The second time he obeyed partly, but he still took his nephew Lot with him which was not part of God’s plan. It wasn’t until after he finally separated himself from his nephew that God revealed His plan to Abram.  Even after this, Abram’s trust in the Lord’s providence was not total.  He left Canaan (without permission from the Lord) because he feared the famine that was in the land.  He lied about his wife because he didn’t trust the Lord to protect him from Pharaoh and his people.  But God was with him every step of the way.  When Pharaoh took Sarai, Abram’s wife as his own because Abram lied and told the Egyptians that Sarai was his sister (a half-lie because she was his half-sister, but the intent was still a lie), God kept her from the bed of Pharaoh.  God kept her safe in spite of human efforts since it was God’s plan that Sarai produce the heir from whom would come the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

   

       The great part of the story is that God was with Abram, (whose name God later changed to Abraham meaning father of many nations) and even though Abram/Abraham didn’t always obey right away, God did not chastise him for not obeying fully but worked with Abraham and brought him along on his journey toward their relationship until he was finally called, “A friend of God.” God was teaching Abraham to trust Him throughout all the trials he endured.  God was and is teaching me to trust Him even when what is before me seems impossible. But with God nothing is impossible.