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Home again, Part II
Despite the rigors of life on the road, at no point during the San Diego trip did I feel like I wasn't on vacation. Riding Hwy 1 from Long Beach to Dana Point is one of the top ten rides of my life. Caveat: I like to take vacations that require vacations, if you know what I mean.
But, according to this wonderful blog-- and it really is-- what happened after I left is worth retelling to your kids and grandkids. Nasty crashes. New levels of exhaustion. Hills. Hills. Hills. Mountains. Sports cars. A helicopter. Box seats. Even the lunch at the VLA. Epic tales such as these are the stuff of legend, the kind of story that brings wide-eyed children closer to hear more.
Yet, not without a cost. As I watched the new team frolic on Long Beach, I knew that matching jerseys don't make a R:WT team. Hardships and challenges make a R:WT team. But you don't say that, because it's doomsday. And because the beach was nice.
What is it about suffering? The Ride:Well Tour is like life abbreviated, or life in fast forward, where the pains and pleasures seem intermingled in a dizzying array of feelings, both emotional and physical. Kudos to everyone who has already examined this theme, which I think I understand, a little bit. I've long participated in sporting events that most "ball and stick" athletes consider punishment. I do believe that, in part, professional cycling is masochism on parade.
Yet, in a "rolling body of believers", other themes abound. I'm thinking about the Church, as Erik says "the Church universal." Many people our age are fed up with primer school religion, and I fear for the spiritual health of our generation. I can't blame them for their apathy, because oftentimes it's not apathy for apathy's sake but a cynical response to the abuses of the predecessors. It becomes, precisely, lethargy.
We know in youth ministry-- or, more precisely, "the attempt to guide adolescents from falling off the face of the earth during the rockiest time in their personal faith progressions"-- that over three quarters of our church kids go to secular college and never come back. But sadder still, what about the ones who did make it through "Christian university training" but were so horrified by the inconsistencies between ideal and reality that they gave up on us altogether? They are the ones I miss the most; in fact, I used to be one of them.
Yet, no one seems to suture the hemorrhage. I, for one, think that beyond the problem of believers who quit, the Church is failing to be like Jesus. Our generation needs something different, something real and sometimes epic. Tangibility is key.
Welcome to the Ride:Well Tour, a brand I have come to love, and it has nothing to do with marketing. I see in the R:WT's message of love and sacrifice a beautiful counterpoint to the self-obsessed religion of the predecessors, the apathy of the young, and a purification to our pride, as Americans who feel the need to reeducate the entire planet and as believers with an overindividualized idea of community.
Friends, I can't really tell my people back home what I've learned experientially from the Ride:Well Tour, because I don't know if it will make sense to anyone except you, and esp. '08 alums who have had more time to think. So, I wrote this blog here, and I hope you will continue to think and pray about what you would like to take from this Tour. That would be cool.
Cheers,
Andy
p.s. The "other" Tour starts on Saturday. It's that time of year again. Bon vivre.
But, according to this wonderful blog-- and it really is-- what happened after I left is worth retelling to your kids and grandkids. Nasty crashes. New levels of exhaustion. Hills. Hills. Hills. Mountains. Sports cars. A helicopter. Box seats. Even the lunch at the VLA. Epic tales such as these are the stuff of legend, the kind of story that brings wide-eyed children closer to hear more.
Yet, not without a cost. As I watched the new team frolic on Long Beach, I knew that matching jerseys don't make a R:WT team. Hardships and challenges make a R:WT team. But you don't say that, because it's doomsday. And because the beach was nice.
What is it about suffering? The Ride:Well Tour is like life abbreviated, or life in fast forward, where the pains and pleasures seem intermingled in a dizzying array of feelings, both emotional and physical. Kudos to everyone who has already examined this theme, which I think I understand, a little bit. I've long participated in sporting events that most "ball and stick" athletes consider punishment. I do believe that, in part, professional cycling is masochism on parade.
Yet, in a "rolling body of believers", other themes abound. I'm thinking about the Church, as Erik says "the Church universal." Many people our age are fed up with primer school religion, and I fear for the spiritual health of our generation. I can't blame them for their apathy, because oftentimes it's not apathy for apathy's sake but a cynical response to the abuses of the predecessors. It becomes, precisely, lethargy.
We know in youth ministry-- or, more precisely, "the attempt to guide adolescents from falling off the face of the earth during the rockiest time in their personal faith progressions"-- that over three quarters of our church kids go to secular college and never come back. But sadder still, what about the ones who did make it through "Christian university training" but were so horrified by the inconsistencies between ideal and reality that they gave up on us altogether? They are the ones I miss the most; in fact, I used to be one of them.
Yet, no one seems to suture the hemorrhage. I, for one, think that beyond the problem of believers who quit, the Church is failing to be like Jesus. Our generation needs something different, something real and sometimes epic. Tangibility is key.
Welcome to the Ride:Well Tour, a brand I have come to love, and it has nothing to do with marketing. I see in the R:WT's message of love and sacrifice a beautiful counterpoint to the self-obsessed religion of the predecessors, the apathy of the young, and a purification to our pride, as Americans who feel the need to reeducate the entire planet and as believers with an overindividualized idea of community.
Friends, I can't really tell my people back home what I've learned experientially from the Ride:Well Tour, because I don't know if it will make sense to anyone except you, and esp. '08 alums who have had more time to think. So, I wrote this blog here, and I hope you will continue to think and pray about what you would like to take from this Tour. That would be cool.
Cheers,
Andy
p.s. The "other" Tour starts on Saturday. It's that time of year again. Bon vivre.
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