Ever get frustrated when those train crossing guards come down and you have to wait and it seems like the train takes forever?
Our team took off from Cheyenne on Saturday to begin our 500-mile FRONT RANGE Tour. Beautiful day, great ride, everything went about as well as possible–until the lead riders were about 3 miles from the end. DING-DING-DING! Red flashing lights, arms drop, and here comes a train.
After 55 miles, these folks were ready to be done. They didn’t want to stand and watch as the train rolled slowly back and forth, switching and picking up cars in the process. Over and over, back and forth, as our riders grew more and more impatient. Will this process ever end?
But an odd thing happened. At this point our team was stretched out a couple of miles from front to back, folks cranking along in groups of 2 and 3. The train delay brought the entire gang of 22 back together. And as they stood around griping, conversations broke out. Laughter occurred. People got to know each other.
A whole bunch of accidental team building happened because the train forced us to stop for a few minutes. And when the crossing finally cleared, the team decided to ride the last 3 miles in a big, long, slow procession. It was the coolest thing to see the whole line of jerseys parading through town.
They might have trickled in 2 or 3 at a time. That would have been okay. But we’d have missed the excitement, the cheering, the genuine joy of the mass arrival.
The train delayed us by 20-25 minutes. It might have been the best time we spent all day.
How often do we perceive an interruption as wasted time? We fuss and fume about being knocked off our precious schedule, and then we hurry in anger trying to catch up.
What if God’s offering an opportunity to slow down? What if there’s something waiting in that moment for you to notice?
What if the time’s not really wasted?