THE CONVERSATION
One basic message of the movie is to get out of your comfort zone and listen to what God has planned. It may not make sense at all. When Jerry first came to me and asked, “Hey do you want to do this”, my first thought was, “Are you kidding me?” The idea [is] to tune in and to not discount things just because they don’t make sense to you. Teamwork is another big lesson.
When it doesn’t make sense that’s an even bigger sign that it is something he wants you to do.
Jerry and I go to the same church. For years we knew of each other but we weren’t close friends. When he first asked me I told my wife that I figured he was selling some multi-level marketing thing. Now I tell people tongue-in-cheek that it ended up being much worse than some multi-level marketing sell. But he had a dream and that is another [character] message — listen and allow yourself to be pulled into others dreams.
I had never consider doing this. I am a triathlete. I had never ridden more than 140 miles in one sitting. All of a sudden this guy is asking me if I want to ride cross-country with him. We would be covering about 200+ miles per person per day for seven straight days. That doesn’t make any sense on the outset. That’s what’s cool about the things God calls you to do. It doesn’t make sense.
Sometimes, I’m starting to think, when it doesn’t make sense that is an even bigger sign that’s something he wants you doing.
[During the race] the conversations I had with God were constant. We wouldn’t do twelve hours on/twelve hours off on the splits. If it was 120°+ in the desert (which is about 180° on the road surface) we would do twenty to thirty minute pulls. At nights we would switch over to a three to four hour pull, so the other person could get some sleep.
We have to trust God when we can only see today.
In that setting when you can’t see further than the lights from the follow-vehicle behind you and the lamp mounted on the bike you could really only see ten yards at a time. To bring a faith perspective to that, I think in life God doesn’t show you six miles in advance. Sometimes he doesn’t show us any more than ten yards in advance. We don’t have to trust God a lot if we can see the next six years of our life. But when we can only see today, that is different.
There are a lot of conversations like that with God when you can’t see more than ten yards ahead, “Gosh, that’s a lot like my life. I can’t see anywhere ahead, I can only see today.”
There are also a lot of safety conversations frankly. If I were to have thought about it too closely I’d probably have got off my bike and set alongside the road.
My conversations with God while riding the bike really resulted with me deciding to do my PhD on mental toughness. I got to know myself better. I learned what was inside, how that varies and the role faith plays in all of that.
The biggest pain actually happened six weeks before the race. I got in a bike wreck. While out training, a goose flew into my bike. I broke four ribs and my clavicle along with three fractures of my pelvis and a concussion. As much as that physically hurt, the mental piece [hurt more] thinking, “Oh no, I might miss this. I’ve trained for seven months, devoted so much time and now I may let others down.” That was the pain before the race.
During the event, I was tired. I was exhausted. I didn’t want to take one more pedal stroke. But that was more between my ears than it was any place else. I didn’t really have acute pain, rather my muscles just couldn’t go any further.
Especially the nighttime pulls of four hours, it was constant. I needed to keep going so my partner could get sleep, but my body just kept yelling at me, “We’re done, we’re done, we’re done!” Every day had a rough spot, but you knew that tomorrow would be worse.
God calls us to something bigger that we can’t do on our own.
That experience was temporary for just a section of the day. An hour later I would be fine. It was strange and interesting. Much of what God spoke to me was about having an appreciation for being out there.
Those who ride a bike or run, know how incredible it is to be active in a beautiful day. You take it in, sing, praise God and enjoy an amazing feeling.
TobyMac has a song titled Beyond Me. That song would often come to my mind while I was riding. The whole concept [of the song and how it relates to my race] is that God calls me to something that is bigger than me – I can’t do it on my own.
My teammates-the crew were such a gift from God. They carried us. As soon as I got off my bike they were there. They had food. They got me in the car, helped me to lay down and reminded me to drink fluids. That was ongoing for the entire week. They were there for us. God reminded me to give a huge thanksgiving just for them.
I also learned just to be thankful for being OK. I remember one day while riding in Illinois I was going down a hill and hit a pothole. My handlebars totally turned downward. There is no logical reason why I shouldn’t have done a head flip and been severely injured. Moments like that fill you with thanksgiving. God reminded me that I was not in control. God was holding me up in that moment.
Mental toughness is a gift that God has given us. We can choose to tap into it or we can choose to leave it along the sidelines. It’s just like with Faith & Fitness Magazine readers. They choose to use the physical gifts God has given them. They choose to run, bike, lift, do CrossFit or whatever it might be. He has given them a gift and they are actively choosing to use it.
Open the gift of mental toughness and optimize it.
Mental toughness is the same thing. It is another gift. The majority of the population does not tap into it. Mental toughness is not, ‘look at me, I’m strong, I’m Superman’ — that kind of thing. A gift is of no value if it doesn’t get opened. God has given [mental toughness] to all of us. But for most of us it sits over in the corner never being opened for our entire lives.
[Then for those who open the gift of mental toughness they must learn to be] an optimizer rather than a depleter. Optimizers learn to use more of the mental toughness. Depleters are like leaks. Physically, eating well is optimizing whereas over training is depleting.
When it comes to health and wellness, if we are not taking care of our bodies, then we can’t serve him as much as we could otherwise.
Help others by creating relationships and finding out what matters to them.
In terms of encouraging others around us it is imperative that Christians not make physical [fitness] an expression of being judgmental. The undergirding Christian principle we have at my company US Corporate Wellness is, “better than yesterday”. How do we make tomorrow a little better than yesterday? That doesn’t necessarily mean lose weight. It means let’s focus on one thing and help that one thing get a little better. That creates a positive direction that can help other things.
If you want to help coworkers, family, or friends don’t walk up to them and tell them what they need to do. Instead engage with them, connect, create a relationship and get to know them. Find out what matters to them and then help them with that. When you help them with that it can build from there.
