Riding With Purpose

Tomorrow I head off on an adventure! I’m riding Dalmac (www.biketcba.org/DALMAC/dframe.html) from Lansing to De Tour Village in the UP! The total will be 380 miles over five days. I also will be camping out each night in the new tent I got for my birthday! There are eight others going along from the church. It should be a lot of fun. We are going to be combining the trip with a CIA (Christ In Action) event. We have 300 water bottles to hand out and our sag-wagon (a wagon to pick up those sagging) will be giving away water and Propel. So we are turning a fun event into an outreach event.

I guess I regret that we have to “turn it into” anything. It doesn’t seem right to make our faith something we tack on to the side of our lives. We have this feature on our house that was added on as an after-thought. We lovingly call it “the wart” because it just doesn’t fit. My walk with Christ is not a “wart”. It is the central part of my being and purpose in life. Everything else is supposed to (not that it always does) flow out of my relationship with Jesus. Colossians 3:17 (NIV) says, “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” That includes riding bicycles ridiculous distances.

There will be over 2,000 other crazies out there on this trip. It is my hope that we, as Christ followers, will be the salt and light we are called to be. At the same time, we will be sharing our lives in a quiet and, hopefully, winsome way. As in my previous post, I’m put off by those who put off those still seeking by their “in your face” methodology. If too much salt is put into food, you want to spit it out. If light is too bright, it gets turned off or sunglasses get put on. I want to be “just right” in my sharing my faith with others. To invite them in and live in a way that they want to know why I am the way I am. Pray with me that this week will be a time for the Dalmac team to be salt and light as we sweat and pedal.