Our family is in a season of big transition...lots of questions to answer about jobs, where to live, school choices; the list goes on and on. And its dizzying. But that's a post for another day when all this has shaken out. Nonetheless, this season has been a doozy. A dizzying-doozy. But with it's deep-digging, soul-searching, faith-fanning demands, it's also been nothing short of a miracle. So though no life-questions were answered yesterday during spin class, what was answered was a heart-question: the miracle of getting another little glimpse into the heart of God. And those latter moments are the sorts of moments that make enduring the wait of the former possible.
The parallels of cycling through a life of faith and cycling through a spin class just kept building and building in my mind's eye during the hour, like a cyclist's ascent up a steep hill.
Firstly, (no shame here, well maybe a little) I couldn't get my seat set correctly. I turned the knob, pushed and pulled but figured the seat was stuck because it needed grease. 'Do they not routinely maintain these bikes?', I thought to myself (says the girl with the "Routine Service Soon" light on her car for 2 months) Nope, I was wrong. The kind lady next to me simply hopped off her bike and turned the knob just a slight different way and wha-la the seat height easily adjusted to my measurement, like I was meant to be there.
So I selected "indoor cycle" on my watch and all fifteen of us set off on our stationary bikes. Immediately, I began getting pictures in my mind. Like God somehow orchestrated this class. In my strange mind's eye, my pedaling was like my faith and God was the bike. God always being available, always class-ready, for us to venture into a faith-exercise with Him. The interaction designed to grow us not only in body, but mind and spirit as well. Somehow for this encounter to be successfull, it was also up to me to join in on the class, to get on the bike and move my legs of faith to make anything happen. It's not like God needs me, but He chooses me. He's given all of us opportunities to exercise our faith in Him; but we do have to do the work. 'Just pedal', I tell myself. 'Don't just sit there.' Sitting there: that's not what the combination of the bike and I were meant for. We were made to move. Me and God too. And just as with God, if I want my faith to grow, if I want my life to feel meaningful and satisfied, if I want to see God move in my life because I know "He loves me and has good plans for me" (Jer 29:11), I have to begin to peddle and exercise my faith. God does His part, but I have to do mine.
There's a story in the Bible in Mark 5 where a woman who had suffered bleeding for 12 years believed that if she simply touched the coat of Jesus when He was walking through the crowd, she could be healed. In doing so, Jesus sensed that "power went out of him when she touched Him". He told her she was healed not because she touched a particular piece of his clothing, but rather her particular faith believed He could do anything. Jesus says: 'Your faith healed you'. God is moved to move when we have faith that He can move anything.
So back on my bike, so many things came swarming to mind. Like, how often we need someone to help us get back on our bikes of faith and get us going again, like the woman who helped adjust my seat. Or with conviction, how mid-class, I just wanted to roll my eyes at the girl next to me who clearly must be more fit because she was sweating so much more than me. Am I lazy God? Why does it look like she's getting such a better workout - I mean we are in the same class? What's wrong with me? I must not be doing something right. And even then, letting my faith metaphor spill over into my thoughts: God, does she have more faith than me? Is that why she's sweating more, because she's pedaling more? She must have more faith I tell myself.
But maybe it's not about what I see on the outside, maybe it's that she's going through something in her own life that requires her to exercise more faith in this season. She initiates more pedaling of faith, thus more sweating, because maybe the dream she's dreaming for is huge, or her problem needs a bigger miracle...maybe they require more faith. Paul's writings in 2 Thessalonians 1:3 allude to this very phenomenon:
"We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters,
and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more,
and the love all of you have for one another is increasing."
Pedal sister, Pedal.
We are all different and struggle differently at different moments in time. Who am I to judge? So instead of rolling my eyes, our eyes meet 45 minutes into class and we offer a smile of encouragement to one another saying: 'You can do this'. 'So can you'.
I also thought about Tina. She's not merely the instructor; she's so much more. It is an honor to have people like her who prepare routines and music for the class ahead of time, who believe in the power of change through exercise, who show us what do and how to press through a difficult class or journey. Just like Tina, I'm grateful for the faith-encouragers in my life who believe:
God is what will fulfill & change me.
Faith must be exercised. Me and the bike. God and Me must each do our part.
And just when we think the lesson will never end, or your miracle may never come, our encouragers are there to tell us "Just one more song. You can do it. Don't give up. You are SO close!"
Lastly, there came a point in the routine, where Tina instructed us to stand up and with only the very tips of a couple of fingers touching the handle. She said, "Use your core. Don't use your hands to stay balanced on the bike while you peddle. Use your core. It's hard to do, but it will strength it." And I thought how beautifully that illustrates our own faith walks. God is the very core that will keep us upright and strong. And when we exercise using it, it only gets stronger and stronger. When we wobble in faith, it's second nature to grab to the handles of easy fixes, quick solutions, or attempts at making things happen in our own way and time.
But when we use our core, and endure the life-lesson class,
...just like the women with the blood disorder...
God's power can't help but go out from Him,
Miracles occur,
And our Faith cycles on.
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