As spring is arriving and the earth is warming, it’s time for me to dust off my trusty bike and start to use a little peddle-power for exercise and entertainment. No one has ever looked at me and thought, there’s a cyclist. But I love riding my bike.
I also love watching cycling, especially the Tour de France. It is a grueling, three-week race that requires incredible endurance, but the most amazing part to me is the teamwork. Even though it is an individual sport, riders protect their own teammates. Teams work together by riding in a line, with each person taking a turn being in front and creating a draft or a “slipstream” to give their teammates an easier place to ride. If there is a breakaway, you will even see members of opposing teams working together to draft one another to maintain their breakaway. Some riders would never finish the race if it weren’t for their teammates.
Read Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
Two are better than one because they have a good return for their hard work. If either should fall, one can pick up the other. But how miserable are those who fall and don’t have a companion to help them up!
Reflect: We are not meant to journey alone. Some days we are out front peddling hard and other days we rest in the slipstream of those ahead. Who are the people you can count on as your teammates in ministry? And how are you a teammate to others who are journeying alongside you?
Take Action: This month, reach out to your “teammates,” and find ways to create slipstreams for each other. We all have tough times, perhaps caused by the loss of a loved one, a breakup, job loss – or just life, especially life this past year. We all need to have those safe places, those safe people, where we can rest, even as we continue the journey.
In partnership,
Center for Leadership Excellence and the Commission on the Status and Role of Women
We are grateful to Gayle Tabor, lay speaker and preacher for St. Paul UMC’s Carolina Beach’s Church at the Boardwalk, for writing this month’s issue of Encouragements.