Everything we do is grounded in God's perfect love that preceeds even our knowledge of him. We're motivated and inspired by a desire to love God, others, and ourselves - to grow into a version of ourselves that is only made possible by the transforming love of Jesus through his Holy Spirit.
Cycling culture may not have begun with the art of racing bicycles, but racing has become the ultimate expression of cycling. Cycling at its finest. Cycling with all the time, money1, power, science, and energy available invested into human beings riding these sub-7 kilogram two-wheeled machines.
The sport is built around the physiological improvement and efficiency of riding a bicycle in various disciplines from 2k watt sprints with one gear on the track, to downhill, dancing through sand, to extended 7.0watt/kg climbs up past altitude, and everywhere in between.
In recent years within cycling culture, a transition has already happened in which all of life’s choices - from sleep, to diet, to gear choice - can improve or degrade your cycling performance.
An Illusion of Control
And we have the control. We can change ourselves, our physiological make-up with the right interval workout, our mental toughness with the right mindfulness practice. We can become whoever we want on the bike as long as we have time, money, power, science, and energy to give over to this hobby.
But - can we really change ourselves in ways that matter? In the depths of our being? Can we really become someone who loves God, neighbor, and self more fully under our own power?
Outside of the church, the answer is an emphatic “of course!”
For disciples of Jesus, we have a differnt answer. Honestly, it’s a Sunday school type of answer that many of us “know” very well. But what do our day-to-day thoughts and behaviors portray of our “knowledge” of grace’s grand truth? Our workadays generally showcase our own individualistic striving to do things on our own, to save ourselves, to prove ourselves.
There’s little of importance that can be done out of self-help, under our own power. We cannot change outselves at the deepest level of need. We can modify diets, perform workouts, do exercises in mental toughness, monitor our sleep, and a whole myriad of other incremental improvements. We can do these things and there are actually some good that can come of this kind of work. But ultimately, these things we do fall flat.
Good News
If you have yet to feel the burden of this type of work, just wait - you will. And when you do, remember the easy yoke of Jesus 2.
Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Jesus in Matthew ch 11 v28-30
There’s good news in this! Turns out, there’s nothing we need to do to prove ourselves. We don’t have to win the love of God over. We don’t have to be perfect to be an heir to the most beautiful kingdom. Jesus has done for us what we cannot do and this frees us from the tyranny of self-improvement. God’s grace is given to us inspite of our best efforts to forfeit it. God’s grace is given to us because of his great love for us.
God’s grace is a free gift, often described with terms like “undeserved” or “unmerited favor.” He doesn’t count peoples’ successes and failures to determine who receives his love or life. Instead, from the kind intention of his will, God gives all goodness freely, and in the Bible he describes himself as gracious. Numerous Bible verses reflect on the significance and depth of God’s grace, and it can help to start with the Hebrew meaning of grace. 3
When we experience God’s love and forgivenes, there’s a supernatural inspiration to change that comes from his Spirit dwelling inside us. This Spirit sets our sights on the things of above. We will take regular audits of our lives and see whether we’re moving towards Jesus or away from him. We’ll reflect on how his grace and Holy Spirit is transforming us.
Grace Plus Work?
There’s a tricky paradox here - there’s nothing we can do or should do to earn God’s favor and he loves us just as we are, yet his love for us is perfect. He’s not content to leave us in our sin. He will purify our hearts. And we have a part to play in this. “…work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” 4
We get to partner with God in his transforming work of renewing creation, the same grace-filled vocation given to Adam and Eve in the Garden - to bring about the renewal of his creation, from ourselves, to our relationships, to our small, little, humble slice of the world we inhabit day-to-day.
Take note: this “work” does not have to do with salvation, but with vocation. “Those who have been grasped by the gospel of Jesus, those in whose hearts the Holy Spirit has been at work, now have a specific role, a task, within God’s ongoing purposes.” 5
Because I am not Dallas Willard (or really anyone of theological/spiritual note), here’s an extended quote from Dallas Willard on “The Secret of the Easy Yoke”6:
We are saved by grace, of course, and by it alone, and not because we deserve it. That is the basis of God’s acceptance of us. But grace does not mean that sufficient strength and insight will be automatically “infused” into our being in the moment of need. Abundant evidence for this claim is available precisely in the experience of any Christian. We only have to look at the facts. A baseball player who expects to excel in the game without adequate exercise of his body is no more ridiculous than the Christian who hopes to be able to act in the manner of Christ when put to the test without the appropriate exercise in godly living.
We have a part to play in this grace-filled partnership. We are honored, humbled even, to be God’s royal priesthood7 - a nearly unfathomable reality. We get to be the hands and feet of the risen Jesus, empowered by his Holy Spirit - the same Spirit that created the world, the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead to new creation. This same Spirit transforms us into mobile temples, bringing good news to the world.
Footnotes
Footnotes
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Money in cycling pales in comparison to most major sports (not surprisingly since cycling is not a “major” sport). For an interesting look at finances for a World Tour team, check out INRNG’s article “The Finances of Groupama-FDJ” where Groupama’s €20.1m (around $2.2m USD). ↩
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Matthew ch 11 v 28-30. “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” If you’ve been around Jesus for any amount of time, you’ve heard this already. Take these verses with you on a long bike ride, spin them around in your head, and see what happens. ↩
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”What Is God’s Grace? Explore Its Hebrew Meaning in the Bible” on BibleProject.com, reflecting on the Character of God in Exodus ch 34 v 6-7 ↩
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Philippians ch2 v 12-13. ↩
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This phrase is shamelessly ripped from N.T. Wright’s Time article, “The Bible’s Most Misunderstood Verse” talking about Romans 8 (specifically v 28: “All things work together for good to them that love God.”). Wright writes the idea that God collaborates with humans “…sends shivers down some theological spines. We’ve often been warned against any idea that humans can co-operate in the work of salvation. But salvation isn’t the focus of this part of Romans 8. Salvation, to be sure, remains the ultimate horizon, but this particular passage is about vocation. It’s about how we repay the debt of gratitude we owe to God (verse 12). Those who have been grasped by the gospel of Jesus, those in whose hearts the Holy Spirit has been at work, now have a specific role, a task, within God’s ongoing purposes.” ↩
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Dallas Willard loved this passage (and I’m humbly indebted to Dallas Willard). The easy yoke is found throughout his writings and teachings, especially in Spirit of the Disciplines. Find an excerpt from Renovaré “The Secret of the Easy Yoke,” but you should really just read that book. ↩
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A lovely distillation of the Royal Priesthood can be found in BibleProject’s Royal Priesthood video series. A longer dive into the disciple’s role as part of the Royal Priesthood can be found in N.T. Wright’s After You Believe, a book that is one of a few responsible for stirring this project forward in its early days. ↩