Thursday, October 27, 2011

What I've Learned On A Bicycle

A few weeks ago I pulled a dusty old bicycle out of the storage shed, wiped it off, and pumped air into the tires. My initial idea was to simply ride around the yard with my six year old son who has just recently learned to ride his own bicycle. Riding the bike in the yard brought back memories of care-free days during my childhood when my brother and I would ride around the neighborhood dodging territorial dogs and finding new adventures.

One morning, not too long after pulling the bike out of storage, it caught my attention as I was preparing to leave for work. I thought to myself, "it sure would be fun to ride to work." And then I convinced myself, "why not?!" Several days now I have flown the bicycle down the steep hill separating my house from my office at the church and later ascended the hill with great effort on the return trips home. On other occasions I have rode a four-mile route around town for both pleasure and exercise. Riding on a bicycle has given me new ways of seeing my own community. A one mile trip that normally takes less than five minutes in the car takes fifteen minutes on the bike. Trees, dogs, houses, alleys, roads, and people I've never noticed while riding in the car have been discovered on the bike. One day's trip gave me the opportunity to run into a neighbor while on the morning ride to the office and to talk with an elderly church member on the ascent back home. I would have never talked to either of those people on that day (or any other day) if I hadn't come upon them slowly on the bicycle while they walked the dog or checked the mail.

I've never realized how fast-paced we are in our cars and how much we miss around us until I got on the bicycle. On one stretch of sidewalk around town, I've discovered that you take your life into your hands when riding the bicycle. Cars are going so fast and people are in such a hurry that you have to be careful to stay on the sidewalk so as not to be run over. As the cars whiz by me on the bicycle, I've realized how much we pass by without a second thought every day on the way to our next meeting, engagement, practice, or responsibility.

I've also discovered people who walk or ride their bicycles by necessity every day. People who cannot afford a car (or the insurance and gasoline that go with it) are walking and riding bicycles everywhere around town - carrying their groceries, their babies, their backpacks - just trying to get things done that others do effortlessly in their cars. While riding a bicycle is a novelty for me, it is a lifeline for them, and they cannot choose to just take the car when the weather is cold, windy, and wet. Riding the bicycle has helped me to see the way (at least from the angle of transportation) people in poverty make ends meet.

Maybe the overall lesson is that life is better when we slow down. We are all too busy and in too big of a hurry - so much so that we crowd out the opportunities that are all around us to feel the wind, talk to a neighbor, hear the birds sing, and interact with people whose cell phone number isn't pasted in our own. When we slow down, we remember that there is a wonderful creation all around us that God has given us to to enjoy. Psalm 19:1 says, "the heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork." When we take the time to reconnect with God through God's creation, when we look up in the sky, take a walk along a wooded path, or ride a bicycle down the street - we remember that God is with us and that there is more to life than our multiple responsibilities. "Be still and know that I am God" - Psalm 46:10. Who would have thought that you could "be still" on a bicycle?

No comments: