This past weekend, our youth went on a bike ride together to Bedford Farms. The weather was perfect — warm, sunny, with early fall colors showing up on the trees. Unlike how un-perfect the weather is as I write this article — dark and rainy on a Monday morning. We met at Hurd Field by the Arlington Reservoir and continued our adventure all the way up to Bedford Farms for ice cream and back. We were joined by our parishioners and bike experts, Jason Kinchen and Dana Long.
When we concluded our journey, one of our youth, Caleb, said: “Wow, I went from only bike riding in my neighborhood to bike riding 14 miles!” To which their dad added with a smile, “Yes, that was ambitious, Janelle.” I admit, sometimes I forget that our outings can have new experiences for our youth. For some of our tweens and teens, that was the longest bike ride they had ever been on. Yet, everyone made it and there was a sense of achievement and confidence at the end of the journey.
This brings me to two life lessons that I think we can learn from bike riding.
The first is this:
Together, you can go a lot further than you might think. There is something about having a community that allows for possibilities that might not be possible on your own.
And the second is this:
Sometimes when you go as a group, you don’t get to go as fast as you normally would like. You might need to slow down in order to include everyone. This is a helpful reminder because, in the community of God, there is no leaving people behind.
It’s like that old proverb that says, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Perhaps the invitation this week is to think how we want to open up our lives to community and the ways we might grow and journey further than we thought possible. Additionally, when there is temptation to zoom through life, maybe we might slow down, look around us, and see who else we want to make sure is included.
With gratitude,
Rev. Janelle
