In just four short months I will embark on a journey of a
lifetime (which itself will hopefully be the first in a series of “Perfect
Circles” journeys). In a way it seems surreal, especially when I don’t feel
ready. Part of me wants to plan and likes to plan, but another part of me says,
“just skip the planning and GO.” I have read up on many adventurers and their
treks and recently I came upon one guy who basically chose not to prepare at
all, well at least prepare in the “this is where I’m going” aspect. He took his
bike, tent, and toothbrush and headed out to get lost on the open road to cycle
around the world. It just so happens fate had other plans and he met a girl
enroute and fell in love. But isn’t that the essence of adventurous travel?
That is what separates travel from adventurous travel I suppose. Whatever
happens in four months, I will be on an adventure. This does comfort me some to
know that whatever purchases I may need or whatever planning I think necessary,
the “Go factor” is what matters and the open road is what beckons and looms over
the rest.
I would be lying if I said I had no worries. Worry beckons
whenever I get dizzy from inactivity or I feel sick from cycling across town.
Worry makes itself present when my legs fail to carry me up a mild city hill or
when my core feels weak or when my bike acts up and I need to get it looked at.
In a Bible study a few weeks ago I looked at the Do Not Worry passage in the
Gospel of Luke. That passage is so relevant and yet so easy to look past and
ignore. What do I have to worry about? God will protect me and provide for me
as He has protected and provides for the sparrows and lilies. But alas, it is
much easier to say or write such things than it is to put into practice. After
all, God has provided this adventure and laid a dream in my lap…so why wouldn’t
He keep me safe on such a voyage? It will be an incredible feeling once I get a
few weeks down the road and learn to keep my wits about me and have a sense of
“this is actually happening!”
So I say to you, “Weather or Not, Here I Come.” (Now, before
you English fanatics get excited, no I did not misuse the word ‘weather’ when I
should’ve used ‘whether,’ nor did I unintentionally replace ‘ready or not’ with
‘weather or not.’) ‘Weather or not, here I come’ refers not only to the
physical elements that surround us out-of-doors, but also to any physical
bodily weather or preparation weather. Where do you think they get the term,
“Under the weather?” I pray that I will cycle above the weather and gouge out
any eye of any storm that I may encounter. I pray that I will fear no evil or
thief or trucker or hill that I will encounter. Whether there is weather or not
(and there will be, so the “or not” is obsolete) I will ride my mechanical
horse down the Pacific Coast of the US of A and God-willing, back up through
the Mojave Desert and Sierra Nevada Mountains. Weather will try to haunt me all
the way along and will be my constant companion but I must embrace it like a
brother. Although I do ask for your prayer, even though it is four months away,
I ask for prayer for final preparations and also during the trip itself. The
weather will find me. I pray that it won’t find me unawares. This is becoming
real. This is actually going to happen. What have I gotten myself into? Well,
the answer is: adventure.
Weather or not, here I come…
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