I’ve always learned a lot from young people.
For thirty-five years I got paid (not a lot) to teach math to kids. I usually learned more from my students than they learned from me.
For instance, one kid showed me how to “text” one-handed, during class, while your phone’s in the back pocket of your jeans. It was against school rules, but how can you punish someone for doing something that ought to win an award?
The two boys in this photo recently taught me a valuable lesson during Front Range FREEDOM Tour.
Teagan and Collin weren’t experienced cyclists prior to the tour. I’m not sure they knew exactly what they were signing up for when they joined the team, but once they were in they were all-in. They brought youthful exuberance, a deep commitment to God, and mountain bikes.
Read that again. These guys rode from Cheyenne, Wyoming to the top of the Raton Pass at the Colorado-New Mexico Border—on mountain bikes.
Most of our team members rode light, sleek road bikes with skinny tires. Every element of these machines helps them slice through the wind, roll easily along smooth surfaces, and minimize the effort required to crank lots of miles each day.
Mountain bikes are designed for rough, uneven terrain. They’re heavy. Fatter tires create a lot of rolling resistance. Riders sit in a more upright, less aerodynamic position. They’re less efficient, harder to ride, and require much more energy than road bikes.
Mountain bikes aren’t designed for long distance touring, but those were the bikes available to Teagan and Colin. As I watched them crank along for a week, I re-learned an important principle.
It would be great to always have the best, most efficient equipment. All things being equal, I’d recommend a good road bike for anyone planning a long ride. But all things aren’t always equal, and sometimes, for lots of reasons, ideal equipment isn’t available.
So you either choose to jump in with what’s available or stay home. There’s a lot to that decision, but that’s another blog. Here’s the lesson I learned from the boys:
Once the tour begins, you gotta make the best of the bike you brought.
These guys had a ready-made excuse. They could’ve avoided the tough hills and complained about how much harder they had to work. Nobody would have blamed them.
Instead, they rode as well as anyone. By the end of the week, they were often at the front of the group. Other riders made a big deal out of their bikes, but I don’t recall a single complaint from either of them. They, and their dad, were first to the top of Raton Pass.
Do you see the life lesson?
It’s fine to do what’s possible to improve our situation. There’s nothing heroic about making life artificially more difficult than it already is. If you’ve got a road bike, ride it.
But many times we don’t get to choose our circumstances. Stuff happens, and sometimes we can’t change it. Health issues, financial setbacks, relationship or family struggles—much of what really matters is simply beyond our control. It would be better if only this or that was different, but it’s not.
Sometimes you face a long bike tour, and all you’ve got is a mountain bike.
You can pray for better circumstances. Maybe God will give you a shiny new road bike to make the ride easier. Nothing wrong with asking, but experience tells me He’s not usually about easier. God cares more about my character than my comfort, and character is usually forged through trial.
Jesus never promised He’d make the ride easy or comfortable. He DID promise to be with us when things get tough.
Teagan and Collin reminded me that the ride, like life, is less about my circumstances and more about my attitude.
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