I and the Ohio cycling team are heading east. We got a good start out of California, getting used to night riding and testing out what rotations might work best in what terrain. It already seems a rich metaphor for our life in the Church. By noon yesterday we hit extremely high temperatures in Nevada. The outside temperature gage on my Prius (the follow vehicle) registered steadily at 118 degrees Fahrenheit. A resident of Overton claimed 120. I don’t think it was an act of pride. I got a flat tire from two tiny steel wires from a truck tire blowout. In removing the wheel for repair, the tire rubber was so hot it burned my fingers. Even the handle bar tape was painful when I moved the position of my hands. At 2:30 in the afternoon we took a break as the heat had become dangerous. Regardless of how much fluid we drank, we couldn’t keep our body temperatures down while riding. It will be better when we get to higher elevations today.
The General Convention completed all of its legislative action an hour ahead of schedule on Friday afternoon, in notable comparison to 2006 and many previous conventions which left business unfinished. While the media is describing our Church’s deliberations as focused on two things, money and sex, I believe the 76th General Convention of The Episcopal Church was principally about honesty: honesty about who we are as a community of Christians, complex in our makeup and unified in God’s mission; honesty about bringing who we truly are into our continuing relationship with one another and the rest of the Anglican Communion; and honesty about our resources and how they are directing us to reform this Church.
This ride is a stretch. It is a stretch physically, calling us, riders and support crew alike, to know our limits and to live within them. It is a stretch for us relationally, eleven adventurous souls, none of whom knew everyone when we started, living in very close quarters and trying to accomplish together a great challenge that will require the best of each of us. It is a stretch for us as an act of mission as it opens our hearts to those on behalf of whom we are riding and inspires us to give more generously of ourselves. And it is a stretch for us spiritually as we are continuously awed by the creation through which we are pedaling and given the contemplative time that distance cycling provides for listening to God.
Being the Body of Christ is likewise a stretch. It, too, calls us to live honestly, to be genuine in who we are and to live within the limits of what God knows us to be. It calls us to meet the challenges of living in relationship with others, both friends and strangers, letting God change us through them. It calls us to mission on behalf of those whose suffering will make us more whole, if we allow ourselves to take it in and take it on. And it calls us to a spirituality that is as disciplined as pedaling a bicycle and as adventurous as the God-given life through which we are all riding together.
The General Convention completed all of its legislative action an hour ahead of schedule on Friday afternoon, in notable comparison to 2006 and many previous conventions which left business unfinished. While the media is describing our Church’s deliberations as focused on two things, money and sex, I believe the 76th General Convention of The Episcopal Church was principally about honesty: honesty about who we are as a community of Christians, complex in our makeup and unified in God’s mission; honesty about bringing who we truly are into our continuing relationship with one another and the rest of the Anglican Communion; and honesty about our resources and how they are directing us to reform this Church.
This ride is a stretch. It is a stretch physically, calling us, riders and support crew alike, to know our limits and to live within them. It is a stretch for us relationally, eleven adventurous souls, none of whom knew everyone when we started, living in very close quarters and trying to accomplish together a great challenge that will require the best of each of us. It is a stretch for us as an act of mission as it opens our hearts to those on behalf of whom we are riding and inspires us to give more generously of ourselves. And it is a stretch for us spiritually as we are continuously awed by the creation through which we are pedaling and given the contemplative time that distance cycling provides for listening to God.
Being the Body of Christ is likewise a stretch. It, too, calls us to live honestly, to be genuine in who we are and to live within the limits of what God knows us to be. It calls us to meet the challenges of living in relationship with others, both friends and strangers, letting God change us through them. It calls us to mission on behalf of those whose suffering will make us more whole, if we allow ourselves to take it in and take it on. And it calls us to a spirituality that is as disciplined as pedaling a bicycle and as adventurous as the God-given life through which we are all riding together.
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