Back in the Saddle Again

I've recently done quite a bit of cycling--about 75 miles, in the saddle three out of four days in a row, going over a mountain, riding up and down the mountain, then coming back again.

That first trip going over, we took the "adventure shortcut." That's the one that takes two hours longer where the road becomes a lane, the lane becomes gravel, the gravel becomes dirt, and even that gives out somewhere up above the grazing goats. Coming down the opposite side of the mountain, we literally hiked our bikes through a rocky dried-up creek bed. How did we know we were even going in the right direction? Well, at the top of the mountain, I could just see, down at the bottom of this draw, the peak of a roof and maybe a bit of a dirt path. Of course, all that is completely hidden once you drop down into the valley and have to haul yourself and all your equipment through the brush. But I knew, if we just stuck to the creek bed, eventually we'd get to where we needed to be. And we did. We came out in a garden which led to a dirt path which eventually became rock which became cobblestones which became pavement which we followed to the sea.


The Lord said,

"If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move." - Matthew 17:20

and again,

"If you have faith and do not waver, ... even if you say to this mountain, 'Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' it will be done." - Matthew 21:21

But you say, "The mountain has not moved at all!" To which I reply, "Where once the mountain was before us, now it is behind us. How did this come to pass if not by unwavering faith?"