No Fireworks or Rainbows

After traveling last week and being away from the bike (for the most part), I was really looking forward to getting back into my daily riding routine this week. The past couple of days have felt very good--the bike is a wonderful place to be. But getting back into the routine has felt more like returning to the familiar than a fresh start of something new. I suppose that is exactly how it should feel. As much as I have ridden over the course of the summer, it would be silly of me to expect that getting back on the bike after just a few days away would be accompanied by fireworks. And there is nothing wrong with getting back into the routine of daily riding. Nothing about the daily-ness should diminish the enjoyment or benefit of my regular rides.

The thrill of a great ride or of finding a new route is a nice feeling from time to time, but if everything was a "mountaintop" there would be nothing special about mountaintops.

Reading through the Gospel of Mark over the past couple of weeks I was struck that not much of what Jesus and His disciples did is captured in those pages. Much of what they did and talked about over nearly three years of being together remains shrouded in the mists of history--never to see the light of day. I wonder if the disciples ever got used to walking and eating and talking with God? Every day? Sometimes I wonder why I seem to take walking and talking with God every day for granted? Is it because it is not all fireworks and rainbows? Because so much of our interaction is in the midst of the ordinary and the mundane? The parts not written in my gospel?

While I never want to be in a place of taking God for granted, if my time with Him feels like a comfortable and familiar place, that is probably OK. The mountaintops are nice, but I want to revel in the daily-ness.

Pressing On,
-Ken