DISASTER!

I hurt my shoulder Saturday playing football. A guy ran into me and the bony top of his shoulder hit right on the joint of mine. instant excruciating pain. after a couple of days the pain is at the top of my shoulder (not where it was hit) and movement is limited. I think I may have torn something. So no bike riding until it's healed. I'll have to blog about the living part of the journey.

watch this space

On the Road

Ok, so the blog went on hold for a bit there. I guess when life gets too crazy sometimes the last thing I want to do is write about it.

So it's time for an update.

I've had my first few rides and I'm loving it. I can ride to work quicker than the bus and I feel much better doing it. The roads here in new york are horrible though and there's a couple of stretches which really are no fun. there's also one hill coming home that's really tough.

I need to make a few adjustments to the bike, brakes aren't 100% how I'd like them to be and I really want to switch out the twist gear shifters for the more traditional lever style. other that that it's pretty cool. tomorrow I'll try and get some pictures up.

Woo Hoo!

My accessories have arrived! So by next Monday at the latest I'll be cycling to work!

The story behind the bike I chose

OK, as promised, a little bit on the vehicle that inspired this new direction.
I spent a lot of hours researching bikes. mostly on the internet and then a trip to a local bike shop. I knew what I wanted; a road bike. you know what I mean, Light weight frame, 26" wheels, drop handlebars, gears that make you work and a ton of speed! No mountain bike for me. So I did my research, which also included working out the running costs of my car (about $0.25/mile) but it was really hard to get an idea of anything online. I have to guess beginner cyclists aren't expected to be very computer savvy because everything on the net seems to assume you really know what you're looking for. So i made a trip to the local bike stop to finalise my research. They were able to confirm what I feared; an entry level road bike (the Giant OCR3 was the model I looked at) goes for around $600. So I crunched my numbers and came to the conclusion that I could buy the bike and all the accessories i needed with no problem... as long as i didn't also expect to pay rent. Bottom line is when all was said and done the savings and advantages didn't come close to being worth the costs.
So I gave up on the idea. I figured I'd wait a while, maybe try and save my pennies and buy a bike next summer. I was a little disappointed, i loved riding my bike in my youth and was excited to get back on two wheels. And then I discovered something; The Kent GMC Denali Road Bike. from what I can figure it was made for K-Mart, a cheap and cheerful job, revieews were pretty good though. While no-one was saying 'it's a great bike', most said 'it's great value for money.' sure, it doesn't use the highest quality parts and it's a little heavy but for a basic road bike it's not bad and for the price it's amazing value. $160. Add tax and delivery and with the accesories my total came to a shade under $300. half what the Giant OCR3 would have cost. THAT I could afford. I waited a week, made sure I had the money and put in the order. two orders, one to k-mart for the bike itself and one to Amazon.com for the other stuff I'd need to get on the road.

The Bike arrived at the end of last week and I assembled it over the weekend. now I'm waiting for the rest. It was shipped today so hopefully it'll be here soon. Soon as it all Arrives I'll be on the road!

In the meantime I'll use my next post to give my first impressions of the bike itself. maybe I'll even post some pics.

Time for a Change

It's time for a change. I've struggled with this blog for long enough. Too many times I've sat down and found myself with either nothing to say or so much that there's no way to narrow it down into a single, coherent post. Why? No focus. It was supposed to be a blog about 'my thoughts' which sounds great but in reality is far to broad a subject. I mean, have you ever SEEN inside my head? It's a crazy, disorganised mess in there and narrowing down one sensible, insightful thought is like trying to select a particular strand from a plate of spaghetti. Even if I could do it I'd end up getting distracted by a tasty looking meatball.

So I needed focus and it just so happens I found it. You see, the idea of life as a journey has always resounded heavily with me. I'd like to explore that more. and I just bought a bicycle. So I think I'd like to talk about that too. So i figured why not use this blog as a place to explore this journey of life and faith. A journey I happen to have decided to make on a brand new bicycle.

Jesus traveled a lot and he was a humble guy. If they'd been invented then I believe he may well have done a lot of his traveling on a bicycle. Paul, I have no doubt would have loved a good bicycle for his missionary journeys. I bet Paul and Barnabus wouldn't have fallen out so badly if they had bicycles. I mean EVERYONE gets grouchy when their feet are tired and achy.

If Jesus were walking the earth and ministering in person today I believe he'd have a bicycle.

So if I'm going to follow the modern Jesus, today's Jesus, the living Jesus who's at work in the world as we speak, I'd better be able to keep up.
I'm going to follow Jesus on a Bicycle.

Life. Faith. Bicycling.

that's my blog.

More later. Next post I'll tell you a little about the bike I bought. keep you updated on that. I'm also hoping to get back in better shape so I'll let you know how that goes too. And as and when i find some nuggets of wisdom picked up along the jopurney I'll share them with you too

Disconnected dream seeks context and meaning

A couple of days ago I woke up with a thought. It made a lot of sense then in that limbo like semi dreaming state between being awake and asleep. Problem is I really can't remember the exact thought or the context in which it seemed to make so much sense.

it was a question along the lines of;

"Has modern Christianity over spiritualised the secular while under spiritualising God and faith?"

So here's my challenge. Help me find the context in which this comment made so much sense! What do you think? is there anything to it? ?r was this dream glimpse nothing more than that; a glimpse of a random piece of dreaming?

Self Injury

About a year ago I went to a training seminar on teen issues. It dealt with some of the deep stuff that teenagers deal with and how, as Youth Workers we can help. One of the subject discussed in that seminar was Self Injury. At that point in my life this was not a subject or issue I had any experience of. I'd heard of it but had never had a direct encounter with it, but somehow that segment of the seminar leaped out at me as if I could almost tangibly feel God telling me ‘Get ready. You’re going to be encountering this’. That feeling was overwhelmingly strong so I did a little background reading and a little praying and went on with my life.

Well, it almost a year later that I actually encountered it but I thank God that he gave me some warning. I have no idea how I’d have reacted if I’d been unprepared. As it is, I'm doing what I can to help. I'm not sure why God pressed this particular issue so deeply into my heart but I suspect this is not the only time I'm going to encounter this.

I know there are so many others out there who are hurting, crying, dieing inside and for whom Self Injury is the only way they know how to cope. If that's you my heart cries for you. My soul cries for you. I’m no-one special, but i burn within to reach out to those who hurt. I wish I could find a way to tell you how much you are loved, how special God thinks you are, I wish I could hug you, be there with you, i wish you could know that God wants to take you up in his arms and hold you until there are no more tears, that Jesus weeps for your pain, that he cries out in intercession for you, that he longs for you to know his love and and healing.

I hadn't planned to write these words, but for some reason my heart is breaking and I feel compelled to write this. I don't know if anyone will read it or if I'm writing to a vacuum BUT I can't ignore the feeling that there's someone out there crying out to be loved. If you're reading this post, if it's somehow meant for you, please, please please, whoever you are, don’t do this alone. There are people out there who care and who can help. Know that you are loved and I am praying for you.

I’m going to end and post this now before I second guess myself and change my mind.

Prayer

This cartoon is from ASBO Jesus. It's one of the sites I check every day, makes me laugh and makes me think. enjoy.

Blogging/Living

You know, this blogging thing is hard. I have so much i want to say, so much stuff in my head but I can't seem to work out what I should write. Too much. too much going on I can barely sort through it so I end up typing nothing. Sometimes I think about something I want to say but there's too much background to it and it ends up being easier to say nothing. most of the time I'm lazy, sometimes I'm discouraged because nobody reads this anyway, sometimes I'm too busy. Mostly I just have no idea what to say. Not because I have nothing to say but because I have too much to say and I have no idea how to sort through it all.

Honestly? Much of the time in blogging as in the rest of my life I have no idea what I'm doing, why I'm doing it or how I should do it. Whatever it is.

Make of that what you will.

Resolutions or Reflections?

It's that time of year when everyone seems to making resolutions that they won't keep. That your new years resolutions will be broken seems to be almost as much a tradition as making them. So why bother? I think a lot of the reason for this is that people make 'resolutions' for the wrong reasons. Does anyone really ask "why am I doing this?" If you're making a resolution just because it's traditional to make a lame resolution in the New Year then it's really no surprise when it doesn't get kept. These things rarely seem to be thought through. So here's my take on it all, which I will quite arrogantly declare to be far superior to the usual philosophy of New Year.
I just read what I'd writen so far, throught about what i was about to write and decided it was all spectacularly dull.

so I'll leave you with this; instead of making empty resolutions, why not use this time of year as an opportunity for reflecting on where you've been, looking at where you are and setting some goals for where you want to go. if it has thought and reason behind it theres more chance of it being meaningful.

just a thought.

Happy New Year Everyone