How much time do you and I spend anticipating The Next Big Event?
You know, that tipping point when everything will change, all the effort will pay off, we’ll finally be happy. The new job, degree, relationship, or vacation. Graduation. Retirement.
The Next Big Event will make it all better, if we can just hold out. Right?
After the Next Big Event we’ll relax, get our finances in order, reconnect with friends. We’ll be more generous, serve more, pray more, perhaps we’ll finally forgive.
That Epic Bike Tour. Once I do that, my life will be forever changed. I’ll be closer to God. I’ll stay healthy. I’ll exercise consistently. Everything will be different once I complete this Epic Bike Tour.
The Next Big Event makes all sorts of promises.
If you’ve been here a while you know I did an Epic Bike Tour. In 2011 in cranked my handcycle 1500 miles along the length of the Mississippi River. I’ve said many times the tour was a life-changing experience. Not precisely true.
The ride was amazing, but the really life-altering experience, what impacted me long-term, was preparing for the tour. I spent weeks and months, really years, training–physically, emotionally, spiritually–to follow this God-sized dream. I rode my bike. I wrote. I talked to friends. I spoke to groups. I prayed.
The 1500-mile tour was merely a celebration of the change that had already occurred when the ride began.
That’s how it always happens. The kind of growth that matters is almost always incremental. It happens as we prepare, as we put in the hours or the miles.
We follow the dream, gradually developing habits, listening to God. It’s a slow, intentional process of early mornings and late nights and sometimes wondering if there’s any progress. It’s long-term because training and preparing are long-term.
The Next Big Event celebrates and validates the training, discipline, and sacrifice that went into preparing for it.
Make a big deal out of The Next Big Event. Relax and enjoy the celebration.
Take a moment to look back and acknowledge the hard work you did to get there.