PoP - Climb Every "Hountain"

 I went on a bike ride today up and down the many hills in my county. You see, today was supposed to be the first wind still day we’ve had in what seems like years, but what in reality is only a couple weeks. About three seconds into my ride, I knew whoever had forecasted the weather had been mistaken. Still, as the wind made its presence obvious, I pedaled on.

The route I chose had several large and long hills on it and, since the wind decided to be my foe instead of my friend, I began to feel a fatigue that I don’t normally feel on my rides and it started early. Determined not to be defeated, I kept pushing forward, but the wind had the same determination and the same plan: I thought many tymes along the way that it was a true shame that the wind and I were not both going in the same direction.

About 15 miles into my ride (and the wind), I came to the most difficult “hill” on my route. It is called Mole Hill, but I am of the opinion that they could easily make a mountain out of it. My route had me going up the far more challenging of Mole Hill’s two sides and, as I started up, I was all but certain that I would have to stop along the way to rest my weary legs. About half way up, I started talking the God and told Him that I needed His help if I was going to make it to the top the “hountain” (that’s a hill mountain). He listened and He helped me and slowly, but surely WE made it to the top.

As I was about to crest the top, a group of about 15 bike riders passed me going the opposite direction. They were heading down the hill that I just climbed. They all seemed quite fit and unscathed by their climb up the other side. As they passed me, most of them waved or shouted a hello of some sort and I did the same, but if they were at all observant of me, they surely noticed that I was not as fit and that I was a little scathed by the hill I just climbed…the hill they were excited to go down.

Part of me wished I could explain that I was 15 miles into a difficult route and I was fatigued by the wind, but the other part of me thought how passing the bikers was a lot like life. No one can really understand another person’s struggles because we none of us are the same.

Those bikers were about to experience my struggle in a totally different way, a way that would not be hard for them like it was for me. The next biker to follow me up that hill might struggle less or more than I did with the same thing, just like some students struggle with math while some excel at it. They have the same problems, but their experiences with those problems are different.

If those bikers that passed me would have known about the 15 miles of strong winds I’d pushed through at that point or about the other hills I’d already climbed, it would have likely affected their impression of me, but there was no way for them to know or to have that perspective. Just like in life, there is no way for us to know exactly what others have been through or what they are currently going through. So, just like the bikers, we need to just smile and wave at those whom we encounter on our journeys or shout a hello of some kind. We need to encourage each other and realize that everyone is going through something and we all have the power to help or hinder each other…and we need to try our best to remember that the next tyme we are going down the mountain that someone else just climbed.