What If You’re Tired?

It’s difficult to explain the experience of this tour.

You ride tons of miles, day after day. Every morning you load the trailer before you’re awake, every night you unload while you’re exhausted from the day’s ride. You don’t get enough sleep, then you start all over again.

If you’re me, when everyone else hits the sack you settle down to write a blog while Monte wonders when we’re going to bed.

It’s the most fulfilling experience I can imagine.

On Thursday the team cranked 75 miles in temperatures approaching 100 degrees. (I joined them for about 35 before I was overwhelmed by heat and hills.) After dinner we enjoyed a great discussion with a group from our host church who wanted to hear the story behind our tour. Then there were some bike repairs, preparations for breakfast, and a team meeting to outline Friday’s 100-mile ride.

Now everyone’s kind of settled in—except Andrew, who’s still having a bike issue—and I’m reflecting on how I can be this tired and this satisfied at the same time.

The only thing I can pinpoint is that we’re doing something important, something we believe in, and we’re expecting nothing in return. I’m not writing late tonight because I have to, but because I want to. I can’t ride 100 miles on Friday, but I’m going to do my best to do 50 because I want to, because I believe it matters.

When you do what you can, where you are, with what you have, and you leave it all on the road, it’s somehow okay if you’re tired. When the wheels start rolling in the morning the weariness will be forgotten. We’ll remember 25 kids in New Delhi who are getting a chance at the life God intended for them, and it’ll be off to Trinidad.

I can’t wait.

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