When you've only got one Gear

July equals Tour De France and that means cosying up in front of the telly with sweets, blankets and watching cycling. It's a fun reality I've learned to embrace because of my hubby's love of cycling. I'm okay with the fact that I first started watching cycling because of him, I used to think girls were strange when they did that, not any more! To be honest I learn a lot about life from cycling, it's the one sport that has opened my eyes to a lot of different truths about life. I've blogged about them one year (I'll put the links below!) and this year it's the same. 

Yesterday's stage was gruesome, ugly and crazy, and I lost my favourite cyclist to a bad crash. But the main story that touched my heart was the stage winners story. Rigoberto Uran is a cyclist from Colombia, at the age of 14 his father deserted his mother, so Rigoberto had to take to the streets selling lottery tickets to help his mom. A local cycling team took him in and helped him, he started riding and he went up the ranks, today he's an amazing cyclist.

Yesterday however, there were a number of bad crashes on stage 9, during one crash a knocked down cyclist hit Rigo's bicycle and the gears on his bike got stuck. Stuck bike gears means no gearing whatsoever, and Rigo's bike got stuck in the highest gear possible, which meant he was riding at his maximum output all the time for 20 kilometres against the toughest and strongest men in the race. And guess what, Rigo won! He came across the line and he humbly accepted the win. Minutes later I watched an interview with the sport director of his team. In the interview the director said how intelligent of a rider Rigo is, how he calculates things, works it all out and often that means he gives up at certain times because he feels he cannot win based on calculation. That morning his director told him, "Rigo today is your day, don't think about it, forget and do it." Because Rigo had only one gear, the hardest one, there was no space for over-thinking, over analysing or calculations. He had nothing to lose and so he just did it and he won. 

I was left thinking how that speaks to life. We doubt ourselves, left with the calculations on who deserves the honour, who deserves grace from God, or for their God - dreams to become a reality. Left calculating our options, instead of risking it all and sowing our talents wholeheartedly. We all do that and it's nothing to be guilty for, it's just who we are sometimes, the calculators. Until God decides to stick us in one gear and we have to climb, we are forced to face ourselves and what we see is not a loser, but a winner. We see our worth and our strength, our abilities, we see that we are worthy and chosen and loved. We see that we have more then enough for the road of life. Sometimes that stuck gear looks like a job loss, that takes you in a different direction. Or a closed door that leads you to write that book, the one you've been dreaming about for years. Or it looks like growth and self-belief, stronger faith, better relationships or the wished for things suddenly becoming reality. It's not just self - doubt that can cause our delay in believing in who we are, humility also does that. That may sound strange but I have recognised how humility is a character trait some people carry from their childhood. Humility is a great trait, it's present in the best of people and often the greatest individuals in the Bible were the most humble. It's just a lesson to learn how humility can co-exist with greatness, as Holly Gerth once wrote, "discovering who we are should lead to praise, not pride." Humble people are often afraid of great triumphs because they fear pride, so to learn how triumph leads to praise not pride is a sigh of relief. Whatever holds you back from believing today dear friend, kick it, give it all you got, today is your day, it's time for the win. Believe! Because you really can!

Cycling Life Lessons // Cycling Songs:
Crashed Out 
The Penultimate Climb 
Cobblestones of Hope 
Walk the Plank 
A Legacy on Tour 

 

I'm sharing with Holley Gerth
And Susan Mead

A Legacy on Tour

Cycling season in to full swing and the Tour De France has just begun! That means exciting stages, unexpected wins and crashes and more stories to share. Every year God uses the Tour De France to weave some amazing lessons into my life. I have written numerous posts inspired by this cycling race, you can find them over here - Cycling Songs.

 
As the tour pulled out today, we briefly watched the opening chats and celebrations and I started to think about the reality of legacy. After 102 years of this race, the Tour De France is still going strong. It all started with an idea and a belief, a belief in the innocence of an army general, whose guilt versus not guilty, divided the nation of France. Some took to open activism and others took to starting a rival newspaper and birthing a small cycling tour that eventually morphed in to one of the biggest cycling races in our modern world. I marvel at how after 100 years of kicking it in high gear in the mountains and on the flats, this tour is still going strong and the legacy of its pioneers is still celebrated even if their memory has been eclipsed by all the new fancies of the Tour. Could the men who started this race have ever known that in 100 years time we would still be celebrating what they begun? And I wonder now about our own lives, are we leaving a legacy behind for those who come after us, in particular, are we investing in spiritual intimacy with Messiah, so that our spiritual legacy will be left for the next generation?

It works like that, Moses left something for Joshua, Elijah for Elisha, David for Solomon, Abraham for Isaac and so on and so on.

Recently Father has led me back to studying Proverbs 31 in a completely different way and I am so engrossed with the strength of the Valiant Woman described!         

Proverbs 31: 17 "She girds herself with strength And makes her arms strong"

Translations lose essence and often truth, digging in to the original Hebrew found in verse 17, a completely different picture emerges of verse 17. In the original it reads the following, she girds her loins with strength and makes her arms or shoulders strong.

The word for loins is a particular word used to describe a particular part of the body, it refers to the waist area, or the thigh, the loins. The word used for gird is a word describing the action of putting a belt or armour on and the word for strength speaks of might, power, force, security and strength in various applications. These words describe a deep action, she is providing for her seed, for the loins speak of that area of the body (the same area where Abraham's servant put his hand when he swore an oath to find a bride for Isaac). It is for the generations after her, she is girding her strength, her belt of truth and armour of might so as to pass it on to the generation of women who will come after her. The Valiant woman of Proverbs 31 makes sure they understand that strength is theirs, for both her spiritual children (vs 15 - 16) and her physical children. She empowers them with truth and the law of kindness (vs 16). She leaves behind "heroine talk, heroine might and true strength." How she does this, only God leads her and so too, what we leave behind need only be what God leads us to. 

We do not have to strive to seek out God's best for purpose for our lives, we only need to surrender in to the calling and the embrace of Heaven's Glory. Have you ever thought about it - what are you leaving behind that will be rememebred in a century's time? What has God called you to today, that will last for eternity? 

 Matthew 6: 18 - 19"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal."But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal....

Crashed Out

I believe that today's Tour de France stage winner will be something of a ghost story, in light of the story of Andrew Talansky today. Andrew Talansky was one of the top favourites for this years race and much like a lot of the other favourites, he has suffered crash after crash in the opening stages. The consequences of his crashes saw him falling behind the top riders in terms of time but today was the cherry on the cake for the young man. On today's stage he had a puncture and had to stop, after being 1 minute behind, he slowly started to drift to 6 minutes, then 8 minutes and then suddenly he stopped. Climbed off his bicycle and sat on the side of the road in tears. Can you relate? I know I certainly could. I had been there too, sometimes in life when it's just too much and when it's become too hard. The road bended and caught you off guard, it's hard and it hurts and it's okay to feel that pain. As Andy sat on the side of the road his team manager jumped out the car, pushed everyone back and started talking to him. It was minutes. Minutes on the side of the road and minutes against the clock that kept on rolling on. But then Andy climbed back on his bike and started peddling up the road, all on his own and while he was peddling, time confirmed that he was 20 minutes down on the main bunch and he needed to make it in 31 - 34 minutes to still be in the race.

As we watched the screen, tears streamed down Andy's face, it seemed as though the entire raced paused as we watched him out on the road alone, pushing on, riding hard amidst the tears, heart break and pain.
I heard commentator Greg Le Mond comment that people love this sort of thing, its the suffering and humanness that people like to see. I kind of feel that that is not what it is all about and not what people want to see. It was real and it was hard and all of us no matter where or who we are, we know pain in our lives, how deeply can we relate to this.
But unlike Andy, we pain where no one can see, we aren't on international television and making news headlines. We aren't live and on screen but often when we pain we are like Hagar, alone on the roadside with no one and we are paining in our tears. 


Perhaps you are there now, perhaps you have just crawled out of that place and you are feeling stronger - I know I have and I have learned that there is a Team Manager on our side with endless encouragement. He is the same person Sarah's servant Hagar met on the road side when her tears were her food and her sorrow was the bitter water she had to drink.

Genesis 16: 7 - 10, 13

The angel of YHWH found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered. Then the angel of YHWH told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”
 She gave this name to YHWH who spoke to her: “You are El-Roi (the God who sees me),” for she said,
“I have now seen the One who sees me!"

While Hagar was alone and crashed out in the midst of pain and despair, the angel of God who was none other then Yeshua (Jesus) Himself met with her. Knelt down towards her and saw in to her. He did not just see what she communicated, but He saw deep in to the places of her dreams. The place of sorrow and neglect, the hopelessness she held within because her life had not quite gone the way she had imagined. He acknowledged what no one had and that was her right to pain and the weight of her sorrow. He felt it I believe and He knelt down like the greatest Sport Manager ever and told her "I see you dear child, I know your tears (PSalm 56:8) I know and I am here telling you to go on, go on, get back up and keep going. Walk even while shedding those tears, you may feel like the clock is against you, like sorrow has stolen the years but you still can make - you just need to keep going. Today is hard, but tomorrow you will look back and be thankful that you finished the race, I am here and I am never going to leave you, keep going with your pain and in time, it's going to heal because I will heal it and carry it and bear it with you."

 

The final pictures of Andrew Talansky flashed before our eyes - 32 minutes 15 seconds. He made it by just over 1 minute. He is still in the race with no hope of winning the overall tour but with the knowing that he did not give up. People have learned something through his suffering and have taken something with them.

For you and me - we have the hope that we are never alone, never, not even now - not even with suffering or despair. Tears run down our faces and we can feel hopeless or in despair, but take courage dear child, you are never alone. God is on your side - just keep on going, even when you cannot believe or you cannot see, today will end, the finish line will come and tomorrow's life will be made whole in the light of yesterdays struggles. I pray that Father will spread His arms around you and give you strength for today struggles in the name of our Messiah and King Yeshua.

I’m having Coffee For Your Heart with my friend Holley Gerth

Walk the Plank!

Last night as we gathered to read about today's stage (stage 10) of the Tour De France, I could not help but pause at the information I was reading concerning the end spot of the stage. It was a long name and the history of the spot struck me. Here is what I read....

Stage 10 La Planche des Belles Filles

 The name La Planche des Belle Filles comes from an episode in the 30 years war in 1635 when according to legend, the young girls of a neighbouring village hid themselves up this mountain to escape the cruel Swedish mercenaries who were nearby. To escape rape they commited suicide by jumping from a plank into the black waters of a lake on the plateau.
Legend has is that one of the soldiers thought of one of the girls who jumped was very beautiful
and tried to prevent her from dying.
However she jumped and afterwards he went down to find her and
carried her lifeless body back up the hill and buried her in a grave with a plank as a tombstone.

I sat with this information but it disturbed me, the fact that rape has become such a natural thing. It disturbed me that there was such an amazing opportunity to speak out about the rape and violation of women on something as international as the Tour and yet I knew nothing would be said about it. "Women as old as grandmothers and as young as toddlers have routinely suffered violent sexual abuse at the hands of military
and rebel forces. Rape has long been used as a tactic of war, with violence against women during or after armed conflicts reported in every international or non-international war-zone." (UN End Violence Against Women)

But as I continued on - Father God spoke powerfully to me about the violation of women and how the world will overlook the injustices that they have become accustomed with but how we as believers should not. 

We are reminded to frequently speak up against the violation of women, even our biblical texts serve as reminders of the wickedness of Rape.

Dinah the daughter of Jacob and Leah was raped (Genesis 34), Tamar the beautiful daughter of David was violated by her own half-brother (2 Samuel 13). Judges 19 retells the story of the Levite and his concubine who was assaulted to death, there are many more narratives which make us fearful just by their retelling. But the Bible is no mere fairytale, rather it tells the stories of the fallen nature of man and God's amazing redeeming Love. I believe these stories are suppose to shake us awake and cause us to arise against wickedness. Rape is a violation, it is not a purely physical thing but it is a soul thing, a spirit thing and it is not okay. For generations women have been violated and this week I have heard Father tell me that it is time for us to raise one voice and declare from our places on this planet against the violation and oppression of women. While researching rape statistics in the world, I discovered that muslim countries have the highest levels of rape, while Sweden and India top the list, with South Africa being in the top five.

Family, tomorrow a friend of mine who is visiting Israel, will visit the Chuldah steps in Jerusalem. Yeshua has laid this particular place on my heart as it is the place where the prophetess Chuldah would speak out from. She was a prophetess in her day and she spoke the words of God boldly out in to a generation of decay. Her voice is echoing to us today, her voice is calling to us as women and telling us to arise, to speak against injustice, to speak up for the righteousness of our King and to declare His message aloud. While this friend of mine will stand on the Chuldah steps tomorrow, I will be standing here in my home and together we will proclaim in to the spirit realm the message of freedom and hope to the daughters of the King. We will speak it by the Holy Spirit because God has told me "now is the time!" Family, I truly pray that you will join with us this week, to stand in the gap for the violation of women in this world. God has shown me that although we feel powerless to stop this pervasive evil that seems rampant, there is nothing too hard for our God! Are we willing to abandon all and trust Him, are we willing to stand and declare for our sisters? I want to invite you through the Holy Spirit, to intercede on behalf of the survivors of rape and to declare and proclaim from Gods word - judgment and intervention against the violation of women worldwide. Join me this week and together let's petition the throne of God!

Let's pray against this and stand as children of the King in the gap - let's join hands because where we agree on something in this earth, I believe it will be done! Blessings in Yeshua!

Cobblestones of Hope

Today’s stage on the Tour De France is by far the most brutal and the most odd. It’s raining and the roads are wet, the riders are nervous and there are cobble stone sections which is a hazard of note. Already the crashes have begun! My husband and I sit praying for the riders as the road gets tough and the tour gets hard. I smiled with delight to realise our faces are skewed up as we watch and we are praying for people we don’t know to overcome terrain they have voluntarily put themselves in, all to win a cycling race. Guess that’s the compassion of our heart and the sheer desire not to see anyone break bones and waste their life away.

As I was watching the stage (I took a break from it to share this post) I suddenly clicked – that’s right Father, that’s exactly how it is in life! Our walk of faith resembles a road, a bike race if you will. We are not up against anyone else but ourselves, hence the reason why Paul said “I die daily.” We wage the spiritual warfare not only with the dark forces out there but also with what is left of our fleshly natures and while we are cycling merrily along, the scenery and the road surfaces change. One day we are like a happy camper on our bicycle resembling a tourist in the middle of Amsterdam and then sometimes we may find ourselves on a very slippery road of cobblestones with the rain falling in our faces and the spray of the passing traffic fogging up our eyesight. This is life but the hard roads and the unkept surfaces don’t need to take us off our bikes and leave us with broken collarbones. The hard surfaces can strengthen us in the three areas Paul calls the most important, the areas of faith, hope and love.

I don’t write this to you without having travailed through the cobblestones just the past 2 weeks, but I have realised the blessing of “singing in the rain.” God can carry us through, if we only surrender to Him in trust and we carry the flame of hope within our hearts, a flame small at first but large enough to start a fire. I know that we each one have a different walk to walk and road to take and that’s the exciting part of life – that our roads are all so different. However, there will be times of sadness, sorrow, heartache, suffering or pain... here’s what God promises us though..

Jeremiah 31: 16 – 17

Thus says YHWH: “Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work..
And there is HOPE for your future..

Matthew 28:20

Behold, I am with you all the days (perpetually, uniformly, and on every occasion), to the [very] close and consummation of the age. Amen!

What the world has taught us about hope stands in contrast to the biblical definition and understanding of hope. Hope in the Bible is all about trusting God despite what your eyes can see. Hope is all about knowing, not just intellectually but in your heart as well, that no matter what there is going to be a glorious end in sight despite the current circumstances. Hope is the belief in something that is unseen; it is the anchor that holds the soul tight even when the rain is falling. Hope is the belief that there is a light switch in the room and it will be turned on, even when you are shrouded in darkness and unsure of where to find it. Hope is not pressed upon us; it is given to us as a gift, it is endowed upon the tables of our hearts by Gods precious Hand. 

Hope brings joy; it replaces tears and feeds the spirit with Love. In whatever season you may find yourself friend, I pray that hope will be a part of your journey because inevitably while we watch the crashing riders slip in the rain, it will end because there is a finish line for today. In your circumstances the pain and sorrow will likewise end because at some point there is a finish line and the promise that while you traverse life’s realities – Yeshua our Messiah has already promised that He is riding it with you always even until the end of this current age, that is a promise without a time frame or expiration date. I can almost see the angels gathered around the throne watching some of Gods children riding a very slippery road in adversity. God can tell what they are thinking – they are nervous, is this child going to make it? God smiles “don’t worry – she is going to make it, I am with her, today’s adversity she has to get through because tomorrow it will be her victory!”
May hope in God and His Love be the wind that causes your legs to keep on going, keep on going, keep on going....

 I’m having Coffee For Your Heart with my friend Holley Gerth
And
Having Coffee with Winter

The Penultimate Climb

I love this word that cycling commentators always use, penultimate. I think sometimes they say it just to sound really smart. Whatever the case, penultimate is the word that caught my attention right at the beginning of watching racing. 

Penultimate. Adjective. Meaning – occurring immediately before the last thing, year, time frame, mountain. It is something immediately before the last one.

The races on the cycling tours like the Tour De France are brutal. Men are bashing it out over kilometres every day; they are fighting between what their muscles are screaming and what their hearts are saying. They are going against the harsh criticism of others and the intense pressures that others put on them. When they finally hear their managers scream in their ears “hey guys you are at the penultimate mountain now keep going there is one left ahead of you and then you are at the finish line!” I wondered today, how similar our walks of faith are to the cycling races on the TV. Sometimes it is really hard, we have to battle and crucify our fleshly natures until we bring ourselves under the submission of God’s Holy Spirit. We often have to endure the highs and lows of the walk, sometimes we find ourselves surrounded by a wonderful team of believers who are there to help us over the peaks, while other times we find ourselves alone. 

But I want to tell you friends that despite your theology or your beliefs, we are standing, running and sliding on the penultimate mountain peak of history, right now. We are on the peak just before the final one. We are on the peak that will curve downwards and finally out until we see the Glorious Face of our Beloved Messiah coming swiftly on the clouds. His return is Soon! And when we finally get over this hill and out close to the finish line we can sit up in our saddle, lift up our heads and rejoice because our redemption is drawing near! As the world plummets further and further in to its place of darkness and decay, a marvellous light will shine in this dark night – because the saints of God are destined to bring His Light to the earth in great waves before His soon coming return. 

Isaiah 60: 1 -2

“Arise, shine, for your light has come,
    and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth
    and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you
    and his glory appears over you.

On a more personal level, do you have more to do or more to give, a longer road still to travel and a greater way to still go? Are you living on purpose or are you living out of purpose? Are you surviving or are you living on purpose and in passion? Are you excited for the road and the great tour ahead or does the thought of it make you scared? I have a great sense that Father is smiling at us and saying “I know the safest way down the mountain road; I know the best way to navigate the peaks and the best way to descend. I am here to help you when you need that water bottle or when you are scared because the road is slippery and wet, I know the bends and the curves of the tarmac, I know how to steer you all the way, you just have to stay in my slipstream, stay on my wheel, don’t look to someone else, don’t look around you. You may be shaky or nervous but I know the best way down and the best way around and I have never letting go of you. I am Your Team Leader, your partner and the Winner overall, stay with me and I will lead you to victory so that when you reach the final peak, you will be ready not regretting but ready and in faith steady. Stay in my slipstream because you are safe there, follow me!”

Pick up your cross and follow me!
(Matthew 16:24)

Sharing with Dance with Jesus