Brake for Joy

(February 12, 2015)
Wednesday was a beautiful February day in Arvada. After having spent most of the day working inside at home, I decided I was going to take advantage of the great weather and go for a bike ride. My bike that I'd had for about 6 years was stolen last spring in Missouri before I moved home, so I was just going to borrow one of my family member's bikes.

Option number one. I unlocked my dad's bike and started taking it off the bike rack. In the process, one of the pedals from another bike got stuck in the spokes of my dad's back wheel. After failed efforts to get it loose, I had to unlock the other bike and pull them both out to solve the issue. At that, I found that the tires were flat on my dad's bike. And if you've seen my family's garage, finding a bike pump would have meant...cleaning the whole garage.

Option number two. My younger brother offered me his bike to use. It being the newest of the selections, I accepted his offer thinking I would have fewer problems. Not the case. The rear brake was hugging the wheel without my engaging it. I loosened and tightened some screws and played with the brake cable. As I was working through multiples steps to find where the issue was, I came to one final possibility. However, when I got there, I searched high and low for an Allen wrench that would fit the hardware. I discovered that we have A LOT of Allen wrenches that are...the exact same size, and none of them the right fit. My frustration was growing, as now over an hour had passed since I began the day's adventure, which still had me working in the garage.

Option number three. I finally decided that, in the interest of time, I would take another look at my younger brother's bike on a different day. So I resorted to my older brother's bike. I cleared the extra helmets that were hanging from his handlebars and placed them in an organized fashion on a box nearby. After getting all strapped up again, I checked the tires. You guessed it! Both more flat than my dad's. Perfect. It was everything I could do not to explode. I hung the helmets back up, put away my younger brother's bike, grabbed my keys and got in my car, frustrated and defeated.
On my drive, I was asking, "God, where are you in this? I just really can't see you." I proceeded with my day's schedule, going to prayer, the gym, and then to a men's group. I pushed through the frustration, but I was still bothered by the fact that that whole situation had become the defining moment of my day. The rest of my day was pretty good, but so much of my focus was on those freaking bikes.

I received some consolation the following morning. There's a large group of men who meet every week at my church for a program called, "That Man is You." After the large group session, we break out into small groups. The first question that we started talking about was, "How can you incorporate joy into your spiritual life?" Some of the other guys offered their answers as I reflected for myself. Then a thought crossed my mind. I told them that I did not think that humor and joy were necessarily synonymous, but that humor is certainly a way we can walk towards joy (another guy chimed in that it helps redirect our negative attitude, which I thought was an excellent point). I continued, saying that it is especially powerful when we can find humor in the more frustrating situations that inevitably arise in our lives. I then proceeded to give them, in a nutshell, my adverse experience with the family collection of bikes the previous day. Embellishing the story by adding a couple of extra bikes to our real inventory, I finally found the comedic relief I was looking for. Saying it out loud to the group, I suppose, brought to light the sheer ridiculousness of the fact that we have all of these bikes in our possession, and yet, I couldn't find one in functional condition. At that point in sharing the story, it seemed only a natural response to just laugh.

Looking back on this incident, I was most content with my genuine response at each stage. I didn't try to just put on a smile and pretend to be happy-go-lucky in a stressful situation. I honestly expressed my frustrations. I stepped back from the situation, and in the end, found a way to laugh. I had to search for it, but I found joy. It was in a place where it was more difficult to discover than during times in life when things are smooth sailing. Next step, schedule tune-ups!