BELIEVE IT OR NOT, WE ARE HOME!

It has come to pass. On June 30 as we dipped our tires in Puget Sound, I wondered what it would be like to have completed the journey before us. Now I know. It happened so fast that it is still hard to believe it is over, even though Clara and I have been home since late Sunday night. On the other hand it is hard to believe that there ever was a time when I didn't get up in the morning packed up my tent and went biking. It seems like that is what we have been doing forever and ever. And you know what, I can't do anything else. Walking stairs was painful and it took at least ten times up the stairs before it felt comfortable and I felt like my sense of balance had returned. Yesterday afternoon my feet ached, and I realized that they were sore because of the "great" amount of walking I had done that day. And Clara feels she should not let me drive because I can't seem to maintain the speed limit, and I stand patiently in line behind a line of traffic that is going nowhere, etc.

The most common question I am asked is: "What have you learned?" Well, I'm not sure I have learned it, but the most striking thing I have experienced is the joy and contentment of living one day at the time, and the truth of Jesus' words "each day has enough trouble of its own" I worried about that second day, climbing Steven's pass, and it was tough, but we made it. The next day we had Blewett pass to climb which wasn't nearly as hard and after that I seldom looked ahead. I waited for the peleton meeting each night to get instructions for the next day. What I discovered was this: when you stop worrying about tomorrow you truly live into today and you can live deeply into it, so even if it is a difficult day, you discover beauty and the joy of a fresh baked cinnamon roll. and you discover that you are capable of far more than you thought you were. But above all you discover the face of God all around you, in the strangers you meet who bless you as you pass and exchange conversation, in the glory of a perfectly reflected mountain in a calm pond, in the encouraging words, and that gentle push in the back as your friends literally sweep you home, or set up your tent when you come in extra late. I also discovered how little I actually need, and the importance of relationships. I discovered anew that happiness and joy are not found in the things we have but in the relationships we build.

I said, that I wasn't sure I learned these things, I said that because to me learning them means that I will continue to carry these things with me, and already now I discover how easy it is to just fall back into old ways of living life without that awareness and sensitivity to God's presence and the need to concentrate on today as the only day that counts and requires our concern and as a gift from God.

It has been said often among us, that this is not the end, only the beginning and that the real work starts now that the tour is over. How true. So I really seek to continue to walk in the way I have experienced, and I pray that you too will find this is a new beginning, a new awareness not just of God in our lives, but of God's call to us to care for the widow and the fatherless and to stand up for the oppressed and afflicted.

Thanks to all of you for your loving care, your prayers, your support.

PS I lied, I actually lost more weight in the last week, so that in the end I have lost nearly fifteen pounds.