A discipline I started several years ago was writing my prayers to God. I got frustrated with myself because I struggled so much during my prayer times with my mind wandering. I went to a seminar where the speaker started by saying, “I struggled so much for years with my mind wandering when I prayed, and then I discovered the cure.” He had my instant attention. He said he wrote out his prayers, and his mind didn’t wander. I have been writing mine ever since that seminar. I have a prayer journal, and I write for about 30 minutes. Then, I randomly read past prayers for 30 minutes. It is a beautiful time with the Lord. I highly recommend this, not only for praying but also for personal interaction, self-examination, and confession of sin. I consider this hour of my day the most important for connecting with God and hearing His voice and promptings in my life.

Three of us went fishing today on Detroit reservoir and limited out on rainbow trout, big ones. I took my grandson Rocky, who is visiting with his family from Hawaii. Rocky loves to fish, and so do I, so we naturally bond in that area. I wish he didn’t live so far away and I could take him more often. One of these days, I will take him with me to Alaska to go fishing.

We have 28 grandchildren, and one of the very obvious facts is that they are all different, with different personalities, different likes and interests, and different gifts and abilities. Still, they are all very special, and they are all my grandchildren.

I believe that God gives us power and influence with Him on behalf of certain people in our prayers to God on their behalf. I believe that Patty and I have great power with God for our grandchildren. It is so enjoyable to be around them and see their individual bents and also to decern what some of their weaknesses might be and areas of struggle in the days ahead. My prayer life on behalf of our grandkids has grown greatly in the last few years as my life has slowed down and simplified.

I have struggled a lot in the last couple of years trying to figure out what God wants me to do in my changing role as a pastor, and I am getting more and more committed to a deepening life of prayer for others, and fulfilled with that role as well.

Proverbs 17:6
Grandchildren are the crown of old men,

I have read one chapter in the book of Proverbs every day for over 50 years. I read the chapter that corresponds to the day of the month. Today is May 30th, so I read chapter 30 of Proverbs. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs, so on February 28th, I read chapters 28-31, and on Months with 30 days, I read two chapters on the last day of the month. So, I have read the book of Proverbs every month for over 50 years, meaning that I have read the book of Proverbs over 600 times. Solomon begins with a purpose statement for his writing Proverbs: “that it will give wisdom to those who read it.”

Proverbs is a collection of hundreds of short statements meant to guide a person into wise and right choices in life. An example is

Proverbs 24:17-18
Do not rejoice when your enemy falls,
And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles;
Or the Lord will see it and be displeased,
And turn His anger away from him.

Most people are happy when someone they don’t like fails; that is how we are naturally. But if you read the book of Proverbs often, that Proverb will come to mind and hopefully guide us into a different way of thinking and acting.

Success or failure in life isn’t usually a result of one dumb or one smart move; it is a result of an accumulation of one or the other. The more you read the book of Proverbs, the more you will know what to do, say, and think, which will bring God’s blessing into your life.

My brother Cliff and his wife Kathy continued on the bicycle trip I bailed on. They have sent pictures and descriptions of the trip several times daily. I have been pretending to be on the journey as I read their reports and look at the pictures while sitting in my recliner drinking coffee! Today, they climbed a 7,000-foot mountain, and Cliff had three flat tires. I suggested that the flats were a punishment from God for his bitterness toward me😂It would be cool that if there was some place that records were kept of bicycle miles ridden that I would be getting credit for all that Cliff is doing because he is my brother. In the last five days since I quit, they have ridden 53, 71, 92, 66, and 80 miles.

One of the basic Biblical doctrines of our salvation is that because of our faith we get credit for the life that Jesus lived, and He took all of our sins on Himself. It is a fantastic gift, and I need to appreciate it much more than I do.

2 Corinthians 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

I try not to be a person who takes blessings for granted as though, in some way, I deserve them, but I know that I do. I know without a doubt that who I am in character and what I have accomplished with my life is a result of those who taught me and raised me and because of many people who impacted our culture so that I can live the way I do. My parents were obviously the most influential in my life; my siblings also shaped my life in various ways. Many pastors, youth leaders, teachers, and friends spoke into my life in multiple ways. I take all those people for granted; I simply don’t take the time to think, remember, and say thank you.

And then there were all the church fathers who preached, taught, and protected the purity of the gospel, many being martyred because they stood firm. There were the founders of our country, the many soldiers who fought and died in wars so that I could live in freedom.

The command to be thankful is given in the Bible many times. We obviously need to thank God all the time and also those who have given, served, and sacrificed for us. Saying thank you and being grateful is a key way for our character to grow and become like Jesus. It is also a powerful glue in relationships. Nothing much will destroy relationships as much as taking people for granted and not appreciating them and their contribution to our lives.

In my praying today, I made a special point of thanking God for those people He sovereignly used in my life. I also asked that He would work in my heart and make me more and more a grateful person in character.

I have devised a new bicycle riding plan to replace the previous one. On the route that I planned that Cliff and Kathy are still on, we would arrive at our son Seth and his family’s place in Twin Falls, Idaho, on June 18th, and then we had two weeks more bicycling until we got home. I will leave on Monday, June 3rd, and go the opposite direction as originally planned. I will meet Cliff and Kathy at Seth’s place on June 18th and then ride home with them. I am planning a different route there than the one we will return on for variety. From Monday, June 3rd, to the end of June 18th, there are 16 days, 13 riding days, and three rest days. I will have two days, precisely 70 miles each, and the rest will be 60 or less. I am confident that I can do this after a week at home resting, though I will ride ten to 20 miles every day before I leave. I have gone through all my stuff and reduced my weight on the bike to 55 lbs. I will ride nine days less than the original 44 days planned, and instead of 2,500 miles, I will ride 1,900. I feel good about this new goal and look forward to accomplishing it. The primary loss for me will not be bicycling in Utah, which was the trip’s primary goal: to see all the beautiful rock formations in Utah. I will schedule a driving trip with Patty, some of our kids, and grandkids to some of the National Parks in Utah to make up for missing them. Also, I will be riding by myself as I go to Seth’s place, but I was always way behind Cliff and Kathy anyway so it won’t be much different than usual. I will be close enough to home or Seth’s place so that if I get in trouble, one or the other won’t have more than five hours of driving time to pick me up.

A good thing about coming home for a week is that our family from Hawaii is here, and I would have missed seeing them. Now, I plan on taking one of my grandsons fishing two times.

Psalms 37:24 When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong,
Because the Lord is the One who holds his hand.

I called Patty this morning and asked her to come pick me up from the KOA campground in Klamath Falls that we were in, and I bailed on the rest of the bicycle trip. Cliff and Kathy took off this morning without me. I overdid it yesterday, and I could hardly walk this morning. I am in the pickup now, just about home as Patty drives, and I feel great remorse for quitting. I hate quitting, and I hate losing, and I did both.

So, one of my life guidelines is that if you fail at accomplishing a big goal that you really want to do, make adjustments and go at it again. I have been thinking about what those might be, and have written a few that I believe will help the next trip be successful.

1. Always take a support vehicle so I don’t have to carry 70 lbs of gear on the bicycle. I know that the extreme weariness that I felt at the end of most days was because of the extra weight. With 70 lbs being the absolute maximum, there are a lot of items that make camping more enjoyable that get left behind. Also, this year, the possibility of health issues requiring a trip to the hospital was demonstrated. In previous years, bicycle breakdowns needed a vehicle to quickly get to a bicycle shop. I knew all that, but I thought it would be an extra challenge and cheaper to do it unsupported. Oh well, live and learn.

2. Keep the longest day’s riding to a maximum of 60 miles or 3,000 feet of total climbing. I do have to make some adjustments for my aging body.

3. Also, considering my age, I will schedule a rest day every three days for the first twelve days of the trip and every five days after that. Another benefit of a support vehicle is that any day I need extra rest, I can throw my bike on the rig and ride.

4. I will work much harder to get in shape for the next trip than this year.

I am sorry for all those looking forward to the bicycle stories for the next 40 days in my blog. I was looking forward to writing them. I will try to come up with something that teaches and entertains in my blogs despite the chicken lifestyle for the next 40 days. Maybe I can ride my bike to Talbot and back a few times and write about that!

Today, we rode 99.68 miles, according to my bicycle odometer. I am rounding it off to 100 miles. I am as close to death as I have ever felt. It was a long, hard day, for sure. We are camping at a KOA campground in Klamath Falls. The showers were excellent; I stood in mine for at least 30 minutes, letting the hot water massage me.

Cliff and I walked a couple of blocks to a Sports Bar to watch the NBA playoff game between Dallas and Minnesota. It was super noisy, and we left at halftime; Dallas was getting smeared. I will be in my nice sleeping bag by 8:00 pm There is something about a warm, down sleeping bag that is very appealing.

We will sleep in tomorrow until 7:00 am and get left about 8:00 am. We only ride 53 miles tomorrow with no significant hills. Hallelujah!

Well, the schedule was to be in Klamath Falls tonight after a 97-mile ride, but we were all so tired last night, and this house we are in is so comfortable that we decided to take a “rest day” today and stay right here for another day. I am writing this blog after sleeping ten hours and getting out of bed an hour ago at 8:00 am. I usually schedule a rest day every Sunday, but I phoned the camping spots and rearranged our schedule, so here I sit, enjoying my rest day very much. Yesterday was a killer day, and I am still very tired and exhausted. I think I will schedule a rest day on Thursdays and Sundays for future trips, at least for the first couple of weeks of the trip, until I get in shape. My first bicycle trip to Fairbanks, Alaska, was in 2013. I was 64 years old, and it was so much easier. I should get all caught up on my Bible reading and Bible memory today.

Last night, as we were watching the Dallas Mavericks and the Minnesota Timberwolves play basketball, both teams striving to win so that they could go to the NBA national championships; if they win the best of seven series they are in, I thought of 1 Corinthians 9:24-25, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.” The desire to win, succeed, accomplish, conquer, and overcome a significant challenge is how God made us. We can grow that part of our motivation, and we can also shrink it. As I think about this year’s bicycle trip and what motivates me, I think it is primarily the challenge. There is something very rewarding in attempting to do something challenging and accomplishing it.

That is the cool thing about goals: you can write them while you are sitting in a comfortable chair in a warm room, with a cup of coffee, but all the while you are writing them, you are counting the cost and mentally evaluating whether you can actually do it, or if you want to pay that kind of price.

Someone asked me why I was doing this bicycle trip, and I responded that it is impossible for me to win an NBA championship, even if I wrote a goal to do it, but I think I can still do this bicycle thing for a couple more years. Everyone needs a crazy mountain to climb. My good friend Lloyd is ten years older than I am, and he is still skydiving, now how crazy is that?!