Every so often, “Unconventional” features a fresh post from a 2018 ride at the age of 70--an Iron Butt that covered 1,080 miles in just over 16 hours, from Temecula to Dillon MT, all on the fairly straight, sometimes barren and sometimes scenic I-15. My Honda ST1300 was without music and the interstate quite uncrowded, providing time to think and pray and ponder. Leaving at 4 AM and traveling 450 miles, the bike entered Cedar City UT at 10:30. Good time, but already some tiredness arrived. So a longer pit stop provided an early lunch and rest. During the last two hours of the ride, I wanted nothing more than to stop at the reserved room at a Motel 6. I was drained.
That first stop prompted a new topic of pondering, that 70 isn’t 28. The 28 was my age on my first unintended Iron Butt, when I pulled out of West Lafayette IN on a 750 Honda after helping a good friend, John Southwood, get hitched. Eager to get home to my log cabin in the mountains of Taos, I flew; stops were short and I felt bulletproof as the odometer passed 1,000 miles. I’d have gone longer, but the gas tank ran dry. I slept on tall grass on the side of a small road well below Dodge City.
The ST1300 was more comfortable, faster, with throttle locks and a nice fairing with windshield to block the wind at 100 mph. The 750 had no windshield nor fairing, no throttle lock. So why was the second ride so much more difficult? 70 isn’t 28. Changes occur. But what tips on the spiritual life came from the ponderings on the second Iron Butt?
We must realize life changes. Not just age, like my second ride. Jobs change. Relationships. Family. Churches. Culture. And don’t just realize it but accept it as a reality we must respond to. Be an influencer through the changes, not an influencee.
Next, keep your primary goal to know and serve God, but remain open to flexing and changing on both what they are and how to do them. Refusing to change reveals getting stuck, not continuing to learn and grow and develop.
Make your plans to navigate change, but hold them loosely and weave God into all. I love the verse in James 4:13-16, “You say, ‘Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.’ How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, ‘If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.’ Otherwise you are boasting about your own plans, and all such boasting is evil.”
Another thing I learned. 70 may not equal 28, but it doesn’t mean decrepit. I did it. Safely. And rode 220 miles the next morning for breakfast in Butte. 😊
Kick Starting the Application
What old habits or acts are you holding onto that maybe should be let go? What do you suspect God would have you change? Are you willing to make them, knowing he’s with you?