Changing Gears

Psalm 119:1&2 

You're blessed when you stay on course, walking steadily on the road revealed by God. 

You're blessed when you follow his directions, doing your best to find him. 

I used to love to mountain bike with my husband.  Actually, almost all our dates before we were married involved riding bikes together, as a matter of fact, he even proposed to me while we were at Lake Chabot in Castro Valley on Saturday afternoon! One of my most memorable times at Lake Chabot was when we would challenge ourselves on a ride, and go on trails that were the hardest levels of difficulty. My husband was the better and more athletic riders of the two of us, but I was pretty competitive and wanted to be treated equally. I recall this one particular ride. The trail was called "Live Oak trail." It was literally the most steep hill climb I (to this day) have walked, hiked or rode. I started off up this monster climb with vigor and strength, with determination! I found myself getting weak quickly, falling behind my man. He decided to get behind me and proceeded to call out words of encouragement, "you can do it!, you are almost at the top!, keep going, don't give up!" I was refusing to give up, but I decided at the moment that his 'words' were making me more angry instead of motivational! I screamed back, "go in front of me, I can't focus with you behind me!" Then I heard my husband call out, "change gears!!" Oh wow, I thought to myself "YES, my mountain bike is not in the easiest gear!!" I was so over-focused on the way my body was feeling, that I forgot to change to the right gear for the climb! I discovered, once I set it to the right shift I was climbing up much quicker and with less pain.
Is there something in your life that you are hyper-focusing on and getting side tracked from what is really the problem you are dealing with? Sometimes you just need a shift in your circumstance.
Life and changing gears on a bike. Sometimes we just need to shift. We just need to make the choice to shift life change gears to adjust the surroundings, the problem, the pain.
copyright@Vicki A. Yount