In college, I enjoyed riding my bike from my apartment to campus. I did it so often that my teammates would yell "Lance!" as they rode by in their cars. It was an easy ride being that I lived less than a mile from campus, come to think of it, just about everything was within a mile from campus in the small town of Wayne, NE (population 5,583 in 2000). I would usually hop on my 1984 road bike and ride to class with one of my roommates in the mornings and race back to the apartment after baseball practice.
His grandparents had a one-speed tandem bike sitting in their garage a few miles down the highway. So, we decided we would pick it up and ride it to campus the next day. You wouldn't believe the looks we got. Okay, maybe you can because I can just see the look on your face as I write this! We decided I would sit in the back and he would steer. It was the most uncomfortable, awkward bike ride I have ever been on. I could feel the eyes of the people in passing cars peer into me, I couldn't see where we were going and when I tried to look, we would tumble over from being unbalanced, and my knees kept hitting the handle bars. On the way back to our apartment, I did the navigating as I sat in the front seat. This time it wasn't so awkward. Since I was in the front, I forgot he was behind me, and it felt more like a normal bike ride. I got to dictate which route we would take, when to go, when to stop, I was making all the decisions, and the handle bars were higher, making the ride less painful!
A few years after that tandem bike ride, I heard Mike Sweeney, former Kansas City Royals baseball player, compare life as a Christian to a tandem bike ride. We must treat life as a tandem bike ride with God in the front and us in the back. We must rely on God to navigate our journey as we sit back and pedal, head down, as hard as we can.
I remember thinking how much more enjoyable it is to sit in the front, but God did not call us to live a life focused on our comfort and decisions. He called us to follow his will, to pedal after it as hard as we can, no questions asked.
I think it is human nature to want control over our own lives, but this is what gets us in trouble. We constantly try to steer without the real capability to do so, leaving us bruised and scared lying on the pavement. The time we spend licking our wounds is precious time to God.
Being in charge of the Employment Development Program, it is easy to want to take control and make decisions on what I think is best. I always pray for God to guide my thoughts and actions, but whether I allow him to is another story. In the past couple of weeks, I have let stress overcome me because things weren't happening the way I wanted them to and I thought it was my burden to bear. Lucky for me, my wife, parents, and co-workers were there to help me realize that all I needed to do was hop back on the bike, this time, with my head down trusting my driver.
Happy riding!
