Traditions are the basis of great stories.
When a group moves down the road, they obviously need a leader to make sure they follow the correct route. Equally important, they need someone to watch their backs, look out for stragglers, and make sure no one gets left behind. On many tours this person is called the “sweep.”
The team of FRONT RANGE FREEDOM Tour ’14 was joined for a couple of days by Pastor John Terpstra from Immanuel Church in Fort Collins. As a preacher, John couldn’t resist the opportunity to share a bible story and add to our traditions.
In Numbers 2, God provides order to the huge Israelite procession. The people were organized according to groups of four tribes, with Judah in the lead and Dan always going last.
So for the rest of the week, we began the day by asking “Who’s Judah?” and “Who’s Dan?”
It’s easy to be Judah, to have the place of honor and be the first person in line. It’s fun to choose the pace, be the lead dog.
Dan gets to eat everyone else’s dust, stop when there’s a flat tire, and stare at backsides all day. No matter how fast she wants to ride, Dan rides the pace of the slowest rider.
One of the incredible aspects of our tour was that we had to force people to surrender the role of Dan, and no one took on the responsibility as an unwanted obligation. We understood that Dan was a servant leader on our team.
Jesus said, “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
In a race, Dan’s a loser. We need Judah in the Kingdom of God, but we should all seek to be Dan.
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Our teammate Woody sees stuff along the road that the rest of us miss.
Becky was flipping through Woody’s photos yesterday and found this one taken at the top of Raton Pass.
As we concluded a tour to support kids at Project Rescue’s Home of Hope, it’s interesting that this butterfly landed next to Woody’s bike..
It’s probably just a coincidence.
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