Monday August 31, 2009

LESSONS LEARNED – THE PATH TO SUCCESS

During this ride I have set goals, measured what works and does not work in meeting those goals and had the time to reflect and think about life.

One of the short term goals I have set is to be in a location on Sunday morning where I can attend church. In Nebraska, the Mormon churches are about 175 miles apart on the route that I am taking. And since I also take many detours to see historical sites, find food, water and camping sites, I usually ride at least 110% of the map distance. That means that in a week I can make a paltry 190 miles (average 32 miles per day) or aim for a respectable 390 miles (average 65 miles per day). This past week I went for the 390 mile mark. It’s hard to average 65 miles per day because some days are spent learning about history. Blogging, eating and bicycle maintenance and other tasks also take quite a bit of time.

I have finally got to the point where I can ride long and hard and cover 60+ miles in a good day or 30+ miles with a strong headwind. However, in the past I have always felt the pain with every mile and closely measured the distance to the next checkpoint. I sometimes got angry and frustrated with the constant headwinds and other problems that came up

This past week with the days of headwinds and flat tires I got behind schedule and needed a lot of help to catch up. I have always prayed for strength to help me ride but lately I have prayed for Heavenly Father to manage the results and improve my character. My attitude now is that I want to do what is right and follow his commandments but I turn over the actual production of the results to him. I commit to following whatever he tells me to do through the Holy Spirit and at the end of the day I see what has happened.

The difference is amazing. I do not feel the pain. I do not measure each mile and each checkpoint. I ride and communicate through prayer and receive information about what I should do. I still get flat tires and ride against headwinds but the results have been phenomenal. On Saturday I rode 95 miles to get to church and it seemed easy. I am happier and do not get angry and frustrated with disruptions of my plans. In fact I now welcome problems as the Lords way of helping me increase faith, strength and character growth. He has promised that he will never give you problems beyond what you can handle with his help. The harder the problems you encounter the stronger the Lord considers your character. It is like receiving an “Atta Boy, you are improving”.

Although I have applied this (turn everything over to God) principle to my own adventure I think that it would work even better when applied to a “Service Task” or a “Building the Kingdom of God” task. When you are in a position of serving others and you need capabilities far beyond your own, God will increase your physical, mental, and moral strength and abilities to meet the need of the current situation. And he lets you keep the increased strength and capabilities.

I had a great day at Church. I met interesting people who were fun to talk to. Unfortunately I slept through part of the meeting but the talks and lessons that I heard were to the point and applied directly to what I needed to hear. Bishop and Sister Taylor invited me for dinner. It was a fine meal combined with lots of interesting conversation and sharing of knowledge. They also invited another sister (Lisa) over for dinner. Bishop Taylor is a pediatrician and Lisa is a nurse so I learned much about the life of medical professionals. The Taylor’s have an outstanding young family of four girls and two boys. The oldest girl is 14 years and the youngest baby is 2 months old. The older children do a good job of helping with the younger children and carrying out home duties. Sister Taylor is a great cook and a great manager of family business and it was a pleasure to see a growing young family learning about what it takes to progress in life. If we have enough families like this then America will continue to be strong.

The rest of this week’s blog are a few pictures that I have not posted yet. I am in Scottsbluff Nebraska about 20+ miles from the Wyoming border. Today I will try to buy puncture resistant tires, get a Wyoming map and then continue on into Wyoming.