This year especially, mainly since the summer, I have become aware of how I miss certain things I used to do quite frequently. Mountain biking tops the list. Working as a wilderness counselor at Eagle Lake Camp in Colorado afforded me the awesome oppurtunity to ride on a weekly basis on some awesome trails. Ya know what...I miss it, A LOT!!! I love to bike. While it's not a big enough priority for me to push tons out of my schedule just so I can ride, I find that I derive a higher level of fun out of these less frequent outings.
Since joining up on blogspot, I have found an old cycling aquitance of mine, Cameron Chambers. http://kcdirtbikeracing.blogspot.com/ Cameron is a....um, well....good rider. I'm not sure if he's still classified as a pro, semi-pro, or what. But he's a fireball on wheels anytime he mounts on a bicycle. The man is a sick rider. I'm a good technical rider, and this guy will float through stuff on his Sunday afternoon cruise that I'll be peeing my pants just walking over. He holds the title of being the 2005 national 24 hour mountain bike champion. Thats right, he rode his bike offroad for 24 hours straight faster than anyone else did that year. I think you get the point...he's fast. But also one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet.
I say all that to set up an comparison. If you read through camerons blog, you tell right off that he does a ton of mileage, is on his bike all the time, and loves to suffer. (Sick little freak isn't he? Haha.) Me on the other hand...I'm doing good if I get out for 45 minutes once a week and if I have to suffer through more than 15 seconds of a climb, I'm whining. Ok, so thats an exaggeration. But does that mean that I enjoy riding my bike any less than Cameron? I don't think so. It's simply that we've found different balances in our lives. For Cameron, it's riding all the time passionately. For me, well, I have other things I enjoy doing as well. I don't feel a need to get on my bike everyday and go suffer. I enjoy riding when I get the oppurtunity, but there are a lot of things in my life that will take priority over a bike ride.
This brings up one of my favorite things about the mountain bike community. I can go on a bike ride with Cameron, and even though I'm gonna get smoked, we can both enjoy the trail and swap stories about different sections. Revelling in our mutual interest. We have something in common. The love of the bike. That love is displayed in different ways. But we both derive some form of enjoyment from suffering up a long, nasty, technical climb. And neither one of us can enough of the child like excitement and euphorium that comes from bombing downhill on a sweet piece of singletrack. We are both hopelessly addicted.
I think this also carries over to being a Christ follower. We are a body. Each of us has a love for God, but that love is displayed in slightly different ways as we are all gifted uniquely. Also as we perfer slightly different ways of expression. There are Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, Non-denominationals, and the list could go on and on. But the important thing to keep in mind is that we were all bought with a price. By the blood and suffering of God-incarnate. How often have we allowed petty differences to come inbetween us. I'm not saying we should join up and become one church. HAha, I don't think we could ever agree that much. But what I AM saying, is that we should be able to love one another enough to work together. Encouraging each other. Knowing that we are brothers and sisters, united in love and by the Lord. Whether we like it or not, we are commanded to love one another. Through the worst and the best of times. May we learn how to be true to our convictions, while loving others with love that was shown to us. What a powerful demonstration of the love of God. People that disagree on so many points, putting those differences aside to work together. Our world as we know it would be turned upside down.
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