Downshifting

I just recently bought a hybrid bicycle, and am in love with this new-found sport. The speed (I am a total adrenaline junkie), the freedom, the quiet…..all so exhilarating.

But it’s funny how you think you are in shape until you try a different sport. And then all of a sudden, after one big hill, your lungs are on fire, your legs are burning, and your heart is about to burst out of your chest. (I will reserve my conversation about the whole topic of spandex for another post!)

So what have I learned? I have to downshift. My bike has different gears, and when I am full of energy and feeling great, I can push hard on my higher gears. But when I am working to get up a hill, and my body is drained of energy, it is time to downshift until I regain my energy and momentum.

I have found the same to be true in waiting. There are some days I am rolling along in my “higher gears”…..a picture of waiting well….a stalwart of patience….a testimony to God’s love and grace and strength. But then I hit a hill, and it’s a big one, and my energy starts to slip away. It may be that the constant praying for a loved one to finally surrender to the Lord has just drained me. (The Lord said these were intense battles!) It may be a couple of untimely comments from people who don’t know what I am battling every day or the trials that I have faced that have tested my soul and my very faith.

Just like cycling, when I hit these hills in my personal life, it is time for me to downshift. It is time to find those things which energize my soul. It is time to find a respite from the hill until I regain my energy to hit my higher gears again.

And that will come, and I will be flying like the wind again before I know it. And so will you. But we have to give ourselves the grace to rest and downshift.