I’m re-blogging this post since I just started my 2016 Road Bike riding schedule. I need to drop at least 15 pounds to help alleviate some physical maladies which have cropped up over the last year. It’s amazing how carrying an extra three 5 pound bags of sugar around can affect your “frame” and your circulation system in a negative way!

I’m a biker, you know, the peddling type. I began riding about 15 years ago and started with an old traditional 10 speed but soon graduated up to a 21 speed bike with index shifting under the brake hoods. No reaching for shifters because they are right there at your finger tips. It’s like riding a bike with an automatic transmission! Smooth shifting and a gear for every hill. I rode the MS150 ride seven years in a row. That’s the ride where you raise money for MS research and ride 75 miles from Cherry Hill NJ to Ocean City and then ride back the next day. One year I tacked on an additional 25 miles on the way down so I could check off “Do a century” from my bucket list. It was a rain or shine event and the weather didn’t always cooperate.

There was one other thing that didn’t cooperate and that was my tube tires which seemed to always be going flat. The culprit was the many little pointy rocks that were strewn along the road. I became paranoid about missing every rock that was purposely positioned with the pointy side up in my path. Run across one of those babies and POW! Your tire goes off like a shot. I then learned that the secret to success was to have your tires pumped up to an incredible 100-120 pounds of air. With your tires pumped up properly those pointy rocks just ricochet off like a bullet hitting superman’s chest.

So what’s the point? Well, I met an old friend this weekend. Floyd has lung cancer which is a huge burden to carry and it makes a person realize the important things in life and quickly come to a realization of your own mortality. It can also understandably affect one’s disposition. What was interesting about Floyd was that he was pumped up! He was full of laughter and joy. When he goes for his chemo treatments the nurses say that he encourages them when you’d think Floyd was the one needing encouragement.

Floyd’s secret? Through a series of events a couple of years ago he came to the realization that he needed salvation so he turned from his sins and put his faith in Jesus Christ as his savior. He became a new creature in Christ as described in 1 Corinthians 5:17.  Since then, life has thrown a myriad of pointy rocks in Floyd’s path but because of his new-found (pumped up) faith in Jesus Christ he has been able to navigate the terrain. This remedy is actually for all of us, which is true faith in Jesus and a regular daily diet of His Word the Bible, that keeps you pumped up and ready for whatever pointy rock life throws in your path.