A Tough Question

I enjoy speaking to groups. I’ve addressed a lot of different kinds of audiences, and I can honestly say there’s not one I don’t enjoy.

Occasionally, though, someone asks a question that just stops me cold. Monday we met with Sunrise ARC, an amazing organization that serves about 100 developmentally disabled adults north of Orlando. I told a story I’ve related here before, about choosing to focus on the 2000 things you can’t do or the 8000 things you can. (Read the entire story here.)

After the presentation a young lady walked up and asked a heartbreaking question. “What do you do when it feels like you can’t do 9000 things and can do only 1000?”

Wow! I’ll bet we’ve all been there, that place where it feels like nearly everything’s gone and you’re not sure you have anything worthwhile left to offer. It’s a tough place to be, but here’s the difficult truth: that person faces the same choice as the rest of us. We can all choose to be defined by our abilities, or by our disabilities. My message to her is no different: please don’t see yourself as what you can’t do. You still have a lot to offer.

Paraphrasing Dr. King, what’s important is to keep moving forward. If you can’t run, walk. If you can’t walk, crawl. Do whatever you have to do to keep going.

That doesn’t mean it’s easy or fun to crawl when you want to run. It just means that if you have to choose between crawling and sitting still, choose crawling. It’s okay to be mad about it. Just keep moving. Do what you can do.

When someone asks a heart question like that, I’m glad for Becky’s prayer before I speak. She always whispers, “Let Jesus speak.”

I’m glad I could count on Jesus to speak into that young woman’s heart through my inadequate words.

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TURN BEFORE CHRISTMAS

Had a great ride Monday from the outskirts of Orlando to Cocoa. This photo is a screenshot of the live tracking from the bike’s GPS device. Check out the links below to follow along as we travel.

Our route was simple: Highway 50 to Highway 520. When Becky asked where to turn I said, “Just make sure you turn before Christmas.”

That sounds odd, unless you know there’s a little village named Christmas, Florida on Highway 50 between Orlando and Titusville. So to get to Cocoa, you have to turn before Christmas.

We’re 235 miles into our 1000-mile tour. Tuesday looks like a lot of seaside riding between Cocoa and Vero Beach. We’ll need to get an early start so we can stop for our interview with Dr Diane Dike on her internet radio show. We’ll talk for 30 minutes beginning at 11:00 am (mountain time). Here’s the link if you have time to listen, and we’d appreciate anything you can do to spread the word.

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We finally got a chance to break out the helmet-cam. This was a shake-down cruise, so hope you enjoy it.