My husband Toby has been racing bicycles for over 40 years and over that time I have entered several of the same races to be with him. I was never the top competitor he is, but I enjoyed myself.
Several years ago in February, Toby entered us in a 25 mile bike race on April 1st in Fort Carson, Colo. It was early in the season and I wasn’t in great shape for cycling, but I was excited about doing this with him. We picked up our good friend Paul Carter and his bike in Denver and off we went.
It was a pretty decent day for so early in the year and there were quite a few racers there. Toby took off first in the men’s race, but not before he made sure I was all set to go.
The ladies were to start together next and I got to the starting line and I thought I was doing great. I had on a new cycling outfit, makeup and nail polish, and I was ready to go. I heard a couple comments from a couple of the gal cyclists like, “Wearing lipstick in a bike race?” and some funny looks.
As we lined up for the race and waited for it to start I was chatting with the gal next to me about nail polish. She mentioned that we both were wearing the same color. Well, as I was looking at my hands, the race started and we all took off. The race started at the bottom of a long hill and I started pedaling, and pedaling, and it wasn’t long before I was pedaling hard uphill alone. Wow, what a way to start!
After I’d gone several miles, Toby came back to ride with me. Several of the riders had a wreck and he realized he was going to be behind so he came back to ride with me. What a help he was, pulling the hills for me and having him alongside for the ride.
By the halfway point I was tired, and the turn-around was halfway up a steep hill. I was tempted to cheat and turn around early, but we went the distance and the downhill was a real rush!
The weather began to change and it got windier and it rained and at one point I could hardly stay on my bike because of the high winds. Toby told me to get off and push my bike up a steep hill, with 40 mph wind and sleet hitting me, but I stayed on. He zoomed past me up the hill, put down his bike and came back to help me. He yelled, “Carolyn, get off your bike” and I kept pedaling. He yelled again and I said I’d keep trying. Then he said, “But Carolyn, you aren’t moving—get off your bike!”
I can’t tell you how I felt seeing my “White Knight” come charging down the mountain to help his “damsel in distress!” Tears were running down my cheeks, but you couldn’t see them for the sleet and snow. He took over pushing my bike and held on to me as we kept climbing up the hill.
He got me safely to the top of the hill and I got back on my bike and tried to keep going, but I couldn’t go much farther. An Army MASH ambulance stopped to see if they could take me in, and the second time they came around I said yes. The two nurses loaded me and my bike in the ambulance and asked Toby if he didn’t want to ride but he said no, he wanted to finish the race.
Toby still had some miles to go so the two friendly nurses and I visited about our lives and I was able to share how much God had done in our lives and we had a great time following Toby along the route. The snow kept falling, but he kept racing.
What a sight it was at what should have been the finish line—everybody had gone home! Toby was wiping the snow from his glasses as he raced through 2-inch deep snow to finish the race, followed up by an Army ambulance with lights flashing in the snow, and me inside sharing Christ with two Army nurses! Toby had long icicles hanging down his white beard and snow covering his shirt and helmet. Our friend Paul looked out the window of the race office where he stood drinking cocoa and he couldn’t believe his eyes! He came running out and was so excited that Toby had finished the race in that horrible weather and was OK. He kept wondering where we were and if we were OK.
That day was quite an experience for me. I shared something with my husband that we had never shared before. He was proud of me as never before simply for doing what I could, and if I’d never been in such a miserable position, I’d never have experienced him coming to rescue me and showing such compassion and love! It was worth it to have our relationship cemented that much closer after all our years together.
As I wrote this in my Spiritual Journal I could see an analogy with my life with Christ. I started out quite unsuspecting and unprepared as a new Christian. To follow Christ you have to do more than just look the part. You have to do more than make an outward attempt at being a Christian, such as just going to church or being in a Bible Study. Those things are good, but first you have to be Spiritually Fit.
To begin our fitness program, we first have to know that not only did Christ die on the cross, but He died for your sins, for you to be right with God. I remember the moment I prayed to Jesus, “Jesus, I am a sinner, but I’m sorry for my sin. I believe you died on the cross for the forgiveness of my sin and to reconcile me to God. Thank you, Lord Jesus! I invite you to come into my life that I might be born Spiritually. I give you all my life, Lord, for all eternity, and will try each day to learn how to live my life abundantly with the power of the Holy Spirit. Thank you for making me your child.”
John 1:12,13 says, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
Next, give Him the controls of your life, quit “riding into the wind” and let Him come alongside and guide you through the storms of your life. You get to know Him in the storms in a way that you don’t in the easy times. Your trust goes deeper as you see how gently and compassionately He leads you into the sunshine beside still waters and restores your soul. Even in the midst of the storms, His presence gives you peace and rest.
There is a great difference in how we finish this race called life. Hebrews 9:27 tells us that “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgement, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people.”
Christ died to pay the penalty for our sins. When we believe in Him, we will spend eternity with Him. The alternative is not pretty. 2Thess.1:8-10 “He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of His power.”
When the time comes for me to finish the race, I want the Lord Jesus to carry me across the finish line, in that heavenly ambulance, to be with Him in heaven throughout eternity, with bright lights flashing saying, “Here she comes, Carolyn’s coming home!!”
