We completed a 500-mile tour one week ago.
Months of planning. Lots of back-and-forth to get just the right jersey and t-shirt design. Meetings with sponsors. Fundraising. Thousands of miles of training rides. All leading to an amazing 8-day tour along the beautiful Colorado Front Range.
After all the anticipation, we gathered in Cheyenne. The team rolled south and, before we realized what happened, a week passed. Everyone headed home, Monday arrived, and real life crashed around us.
A question, for our team and for everyone who’s completed a big-deal journey.
Did You Celebrate?
The clock doesn’t stop. The next thing is always in your face, demanding attention. It’s tempting to simply turn the page and move on.
Life gets busy. Celebrations take time and energy. Easier to just put your head down and keep grinding, but you pay a heavy price when life becomes all about the grind.
Watch a successful sports team and you’ll notice all sorts of big and small celebration rituals. High fives, chest bumps, special shirts, and many we don’t see. These aren’t extraneous or accidental; they serve a real, intentional purpose–encouragement, enthusiasm, team building.
At the end of the journey our team spent a day at THE REFUGE, a beautiful retreat center in the hills west of Trinidad. We wanted to be intentional about celebrating and reflecting together. I hope it didn’t stop there.
I hope each person took time when they got home to celebrate, to understand what they accomplished, to reflect on and learn from the experience.
It’s great to do a big thing, to follow a God-sized dream and reach the end of a journey. It’s important to celebrate, too.