Sustainable Pace

On Marshall Wall, I got pretty far up there before having to stop. My mistake, however, was when and where I chose to stop which was pretty much wherever I was when I couldn't pedal any longer. I had pedaled and pulled till I just couldn't move another inch and felt quite proud of that.

When I finally caught my breath and was able to stand upright, I realized I'd stopped at a pretty steep portion of the road. "Hmmm ... Of all the places on this 11 mile stretch of road, I probably shouldn't have stopped here," I thought to myself.  So since I knew I wasn't able to go farther, it would have been much more prudent of me to have stopped earlier. I would have been able to take on this portion of the rise much more aggressively had I decided to regroup, replenish, and recover earlier on, EVEN IF there were reserves (of diminishing proportions) in my tank.

My pastor often refers to doing life at a sustainable pace, and it made all the more sense to me while I was standing on the side of that hill.  We need to embrace and enjoy the lulls in life and not feel like we need to fill it up with activity all the time.  Even more so, we need to purposefully create margin in this ever-busy world of ours.  We need to regularly regroup with God so that He can replenish our spirit and guide us in the recovery of our soul.  That's the only way we'll be able to finish strong.

Mine is not a race, it is a ride ... and such is life.  We will all get to the finish line someday - and honestly, who really wants to get there first?  We just hope we finish well.

Was I finally able to make it all the way up that hill?  Ya.  Was it easy?  Heck no!  In fact - just when we thought we were near the summit, someone asked why they called it Marshall Wall. Well, what we faced after the bend in the road gave us our answer.  Some moaned.  Some cursed.  I laughed.  See, it's those stops along the way, the having to ride down the hill a bit to get back up it, and even having to walk a few paces to more level ground that make the ride so exhilarating.