Will we reach the finish line?

After having biked about 13 miles through the spectacular woods of the Hiawatha Trail, my aching body was ready to push through the last part to finally finish.

With flashlight on, legs ready to pedal, and adventurous spirit unrestrained, I held on tight to my bike and started my way through the pitch-black entry of the 1.661 miles long St. Paul Pass Tunnel. Goosebumps traveled through my body as I felt the cold chill of the damp, and long underpass.

At some point, my friends were a couple of minutes ahead of me so I took advantage of the fact that I was alone and excitedly sang a song.

My voice bounced against the walls of the tunnel, creating a beautiful echo. I was thrilled by this phenomenon. There were name carvings on the wall and I watched every detail as I passed by.

As I was getting closer to the end, I could see the sun shining in the distance. Praying quietly, I said: “God, this is how our walk as Christians must be. We travel through a long and dark path and you are the light at the end of our journey! Sadly, some of us will not make it to the light,” I thought to myself. “Some of us will not make it to the end of the journey.”

Then, thinking physically, I confidently said to myself, of course, I will make it. I’m literally right there, what could possibly happen to me from here to there.

I think God has a good sense of humor because within a couple of minutes of that thought, I tried to pedal, but I couldn’t.

What in the world? What’s going on?! Why can’t I pedal?

My heart skipped a beat.

So many anxious thoughts traveled through my head during that minuscule time frame.

“It’s still kind of dark in here,” I thought to myself. “If I fall, someone behind me might run me over since it’s a narrow way. If I fall, I might fall into one of the bends on the right or left that are filled with water.” Well, after analyzing the situation I came to the conclusion that I had no alternative, but to fall. The bike was too tall for me to try to stop in there anyways.

I tried to fall gracefully but I doubt I did.

Turns out my shoelace was tied around the pedal. I was able to quickly unravel the shoelace and get back on my bike to finish the ride. Thankfully, I barely got hurt and I was so happy to finally make it through!!

I was definitely caught off guard. I realized afterward that God wanted to teach my prideful self a lesson. I was too certain that nothing was going to happen to me.

You know, we don’t have control over some things in our lives. It is only by God’s mercy that we will make it through.

It’s easy to become comfortable and content with our lives.

On the other hand, maybe it’s happened to you where you become bored with your life or you feel like it’s just a never-ending and ever-repeating cycle.

Maybe you’re not doing anything to make the most of your life and to live your life to the fullest.

The half-hearted man gets nowhere in the race of life, is usually considered contemptible by others, and is a misery to himself. Everything worth doing is worth doing well, and if it is not worth doing thoroughly, wise men let it alone. -Charles Spurgeon

We don’t decide how many days we have here on earth, but we can decide something; we can decide the way we choose to live each day with the way we act, and with the things that we do.

For the glory of God, let us strive to be the best version of ourselves that we can possibly be. If that means being the best sweeper in the house or having a good attitude when taking the trash out; If that means trying harder to give a smile or help a person in need; if that means doing irregular things to be better in your job, church, school, or whatever it may be, then may it be so.

If it means getting up 10 minutes earlier in your day to spend quality time with God, then may it be so.

As the wise John Bunyan said, He who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find him the rest of the day.

Friend, I encourage you to seek God with all your heart, not just half of it.

In the end, your diligence will not be in vain.

Let us not get comfortable in our journey of life and let us not get caught off guard. Let us push harder.

Let us not slumber, but let us watch daily at His gates; waiting at the post of his door. (Pr. 8:34)

Let us be faithful unto death to receive the crown of life and at the end of our lives, that we would be able to say what the faithful Paul said: I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.

(Rev. 2:10, 2 Tim. 4:7)

Here are more pics of our journey ;)