As I sit here this morning at a familiar camp site atop the mountain, just finishing my time with The Lord, I am blessed to see the kids whirling around the camp road circle on their bikes.

The circle has one side that is uphill and one side that is down hill. I see these kids going up the hill and it is HARD! They huff and puff and pound out round after round of their bike pedals. Then the freedom sets in! That exhilarating ride down the other side! The side that goes twice as fast as the uphill. I see the long determined faces of the kids pushing themselves to make it up the hill……because they know what the other side is like.

The Lord reminded me that our walk with Him is like that in many ways. We face uphill trials where we have to push our determination to make it up the hill. I watch these kids…a young inexperienced rider pedals a bit then exhaustion takes over and they wobble to a stop. Faces long with frustration. Or they see a car coming and panic sets in and they jerk themselves into the ditch. They zoom down the hill and immediately want that again, so they turn around to go back the way they came, then realize “that is up hill!”. Disappointment written all over their faces.

We, as adults, can do the same with our adult sized experiences. We see the hill, the trial, and our faces grow long and frustration sets in. We experience a trial and in our lack of wisdom panic sets in. We too crash ourselves into ditches … they just look different than these kid sized ditches.

Then there is the experienced older kids. They have bigger bikes and better balance. Because they have been persistent in pedaling the uphill to experience the down hill, they make this circle seem easy. The smaller kids watch in awe, most likely dreaming of the hill being that easy for them. They watch the bigger kids faces are focused, hard set on the outcome, pushing those pedals hard to make it to the top. They witness the ride down being even faster! And they want that too.

Our walk as Christians is much the same. You see someone who has a hill in front of them and they seem to just glide up it. Seemingly unaffected by the hard trial it must be. You think to yourself as you process your own trial, “How are they not breaking down? How do they go through that like it was nothing?”. See, if we, like the young kid who saw the car coming and crashed in to ditch, face a trial and choose to handle it with any other way than seeking God’s promises, asking for prayer, we too will crash into a ditch. That looks different for each of us. Anything we use to distract our mind or numb our thoughts is choosing to crash into a ditch. That is not what God would have for us and it certainly is not obtaining His promises He has for us.

If you ask one these older kids “How do I get to ride up the hill so easy? I want to sail down the other side like you.”. They would most likely respond that they remember the hill being hard for them too! But they kept trying. They didn’t give up. They didn’t let the crash into the ditch stop them from achieving their bike ride. They would give them advise like “What ever you do, don’t stop pedaling up the hill! If you loose momentum, it is so hard to start again.”.

If you find yourself at a place of trial or a place in your life where you know “there has to be more than this!”, look around you. Who in your life walks closely with God? Who do you watch “glide” up that hill and “sail” down the other side? Spend time with them. Ask them their story. Ask them how they learned to glide and sail. What trials and ditch crashes have they experienced?

Life is full of trials. Life is full of choices that reap blessing or consequence. There are hard hills. There are sailing down hills. We are able to persevere with seeming ease, with God. A walk with Him has to start somewhere, where we wobble off the road, but where we get back up and pedal more! Seeking Gods word grows our knowledge in Him. It is where we have face offs between what we know and what God says. Making choices along the way to believe what God says and altering our lives and actions accordingly, shows we love God and trust in His ways. We can pray and ask God to change our desires, to give us courage to follow Him…He surely wants to answer that! As we seek Him and pray and receive His answers, and obey His way, eventually we notice that the pedaling has stabilized. The hill was easier! Then we look back and realize … “I just sailed!”. Our faces lit up with the disbelief of that exhilaration. Just like the bigger more experienced kids around the circle!

Imagine if we gave up after wobbling into the ditch…….we would never experience the sail!

Where ever you are. The ditch. The hard pedal uphill. The glide downhill. There is room to allow God in with you. If you have no desire to read His word, ask Him for the desire. If you have no time to spend time with Him, ask Him what in your life needs to go, and obey what He says. If you would rather live your life and your plans and not what God would have for you, or you justify away things you know He is calling you to, that is a your choice that just might wobble you into a ditch. Do you desire to know those who have walked with The Lord and you admire their ways? Seek a mentor through your church or small group. Be open with them and share your desires to grow in Christ. You will need help along the way and is our Help. Get close with a same sex peer and pray. Ask them to pray over weakness or wound that God reveals to you in His word. God reveals things to us for one purpose….to heal us. He loves us. He has good plans for us. It is us who must seek Him….and we will find Him if we seek Him with our whole hearts. Soon, you look back and realize “I just sailed!”.

Lord God right now speak to me. Am I about to wobble into the ditch? Am I in panic of what I see coming? Lord I want to persevere with You. I want to be taught by you how to pedal uphill. I want to enjoy sailing down the hill and look back and know you taught me how to pedal. Lord, I want what you want for me. Speak to me. Guide me to your will for me and my family. I ask these things believing that your way is best for me. Amen.