With robins singing and buds emerging on trees and flowers, I know in my bones that the great season of cycling is finally here! I love cycling, though at times it can be difficult: strong head winds, busted tire, and running out of energy midway through a long ride. In all of these things, however, riding has become something of a spiritual exercise for me because it gives me images that I can apply to my everyday life.

One such image is the simple, mechanical fact that bicycles do not have a reverse! You can’t just shift into the R gear and go back the way you came. You literally have to turn around. In doing so you are actually creating a new path through old territory. You see the road differently even though it’s one you’ve traveled before.

As we move into today’s reading calling for us to repent, let’s remember not to just throw our life in reverse but patiently, carefully turn around and see our life and God in a new light.