PACELINE.

I've written here several times about the joy that I get from cycling, and now I've got the chance to enjoy a lot of cycling - I am training to ride in a century bike ride around Lake Tahoe in June with a group called Team in Training. A century consists of 100 miles, which will probably take me about 7 hours, including stops for food and stuff. That's really far.

Since I couldn't just jump on a bike and ride for 100 miles, I get together with my 120 teammates and go on team rides every Saturday morning. Each successive Saturday they get longer and longer, and each time we learn a new cycling "skill." This saturday, we learned how to form a "paceline." (Mom, if you're reading this, skip over the next part. I'm wearing a helmet and I'm really careful. Don't worry!)

Basically, a paceline is formed when a group of cyclists travel 6-18 inches behind one another in a straight line. I ride with the fastest group of riders (which, by the way, includes women who have children my age), which means were averaging between 18-19 miles per hour. For someone who generally rides a bike alone, this is pretty unnerving. The point of the paceline is this: traveling close together makes it easier to pedal faster for longer, because it cuts down on the wind resistance. The person who is the lead rider "pulls" the paceline, and everyone takes turns being the lead rider by allowing the lead rider to drift to the back of the paceline.

The biggest problem is this: travelling so close behind at other cycles at high speeds leaves little reaction time should a big rock or pothole suddenly appear. This leads to the most important element of the paceline: communication. If there's something in the road up ahead, it's the lead rider's job to call it out: rock, car, tree, and so on. If there's is a car coming up from behind, it's the last rider's job to call it out, and it the job of all the riders in between to pass the messages along so that everyone is aware of what the haps are. The closer we get, the better the communication needs to be, or we risk some serious hurt.

I find this to be true in my spiritual life - the closer I get to others and to GOD, the better the communication needs to be. You can't have relationship without communication, and the closer those relationships are, how much more important it is that we are honest, open, encouraging, and truthful with one another. When I neglect this reality in my closest relationships, I can coast along for awhile like nothing is wrong, but it is not long before this lack of openness results in some serious hurt. Though this hurt is a serious possibility, I can't go it alone - I need people who can come close and know me intimately. But unless I'm willing to open up to those that I love and that love me, I'm asking for trouble.

Jesus, teach me to draw close to You and to others, and to go beyond surface relationship to the deep intimacy with your children that is possible only possible because of your great love and forgiveness. Help us to be One, as You and the Father are One - teach us to draw near to one another and lead us home. That's a paceline I'd ride in anytime. See you soon.

I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:20-23)

How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! (Psalm 133:1)

Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. (Colossians 3:13)