50.2 mph

So, two weekends ago I biked to church from school, it was about 40-50 minutes from here to the church. A pretty nice ride other than a few rough spots in the road, with a awesome hill at the very end. It is a one mile length of road that is all down hill... very steep down hill. At the top you over look the country side, but before I knew it I was at the bottom. This hill was steep enough that I topped out at 50.2 mph without much effort on my part. This was a new personal record! Before this I had only gotten up to about 40mph with a great deal of effort, but not this time. I just let gravity do the work and even used my brakes at times. It was crazy fun!

At the bottom of the hill I saw a few bikers on the side of the road that waved at my friends and I. After stopping I saw what could have been me. I saw a man who also went down the hill at fifty miles an hour but did not make it down to the bottom. The man hit a bump and crashed at fifty, leaving him very beat up with road rash and broken bones. He was okay, but very lucky to have been as well off as he was. I later found out that he had hit a bump and gone air-born, resulting in a crash.

It was a sobering experience to see what could have been me at the bottom of that hill. Also just to think of our own mortality as humans. We do get hurt and broken like this man did; maybe not as bad but we do to some degree. We are flesh and bone. We posses life and we can loose it. It was scary and it made me think carefully about how I ride now. But I do have it admit, it was crazy fun going down that hill.

I went for a ride yesterday down into the city just for fun. I found another hill that is over a mile long and very steep. I coasted at 46.4 mph without trying. I think I even rode the breaks for a while because it felt to fast for me. I don't think my 25 year old bike was meant to go that fast. Especially since I have rebuilt both the wheels on it. I don't totally trust the thing yet. Yet, it held up and went down and up that hill without a glitch.

Since we're on the topic of bikes, my boss is thinking about getting one soon. I was wondering if I would ever have a similar topic of interest with the man, because he is a cook and I am not. I like food, I like eating food (peanut butter is really good), but I am not a cook. But this was a great opportunity to have a normal conversation with him and just build a friendship. Since he was looking for bikes we did have a short but good conversation about really expensive bikes. It was great.

Rachel leaves sometime either Wednesday night or Thursday morning this week. I am not sure how I feel about that yet. I know that it is going to be a lot different than it was last summer, but I don't know how yet. I guess we'll see how it goes.

For those that were or are wondering, this last semester of school went well. I did good GPA-wise. I had easy classes those, so it wasn't too hard. I also learned a lot about different things concerning ministry and youth groups. I really enjoyed this last semester.

Recently I have been really depressed. Life isn't very fun lately. I haven't enjoyed it or been satisfied with it. I keep looking for an emotional outlet to vent how I feel. I see other people and see how they can express their emotions and get them out, whereas mine just bottle up and get stuck in me. After a while it just drags on you. This is how I felt the last couple of days, but yesterday I think my perspective changed. Mr. C Smith preached the sermon on 1 John 1:1-4 and argued against this idea that I had. The idea that I need something or some process to feel better or satisfied. The reality that is presented in this passage though is very different.

The passage says that we don't need any of these things that I am/was thinking about, but simply says that if we have fellowship with the father (who is God), then our joy will be complete. Simple I know. I don't understand how I missed it. John wrote, "And this [fellowship with the father] we write to you [recipient] in order that your joy might be complete" It that simple.

Later