Thus says the Lord,
    who makes a way in the sea,
    a path in the mighty waters,

Isaiah 43:16

As you may know from other posts, I am an avid studio cyclist. I ride on average 30 minutes a day, five or six days a week. Sometimes on my rides, God hits me with a truth that I just can’t shake.

One morning last week I had some extra time, so I took on a longer ride than usual. The program stated that it was for “intermediate” riders and would last 59 minutes and be 15 miles long. I thought – what have I been working for if not for something like this? – so away I went!

Sweet friends, it started out great. There was a nice 5 minute warm-up with a few spurts of speed mixed in to wake up the legs and then a steady RPE of 6 for the remainder of the ride. For the first twenty-some minutes I clipped along between 85 and 90 RPMs with a resistance holding around 13. There were some rolling hills but nothing unmanageable and man oh man were the views of Ireland grand!

Then, with about 28 minutes left to go, we hit a longer, steeper hill. I pushed through the steepest part holding my cadence, but when it “leveled out” still on a slight incline, my legs started to feel heavy. My breathing was fine and my heart wasn’t pounding really, but my legs were like lead; they just didn’t want to go anymore. For the first time in a long time, I thought about pausing and getting off or maybe just calling it a day. I mean, a 30-some minute ride is what I usually do so it wouldn’t be cutting short to cut it short, right?

I don’t like to think of myself as a quitter though, so I was hesitant to just stop riding. Then, it hit me that I could manually override the settings to get a lower resistance or flattening out the incline completely. I was just getting ready to hit one of those two buttons when I realized that was nearly the same as quitting – making it easier on my own.

As I was pushing and pulling my legs along by sheer force of will and mulling over what to do – quit or override the program, I recalled something that a beloved Sister said to me the evening before:

When things get tough, God rarely provides a way out. He’s really more about providing a way through. He didn’t take Daniel out of the lion’s den or the three young men out of the fiery furnace. He made a way for them to live through the night and through the heat. He didn’t take Pharaoh’s army out of the chase when the Israelites fled Egypt. He gave the Israelites a way through the Red Sea and then He closed the way when the Egyptians pursued.

Sweet friends, as I think on these things, I am reminded that Jesus could have gotten Himself out of the trial and beating and mocking He endured (John 10:18). He could have gotten down off the cross at any moment, but instead, He pushed through, obeying the Father’s will, AND His decision to obey, to push through terrible pain and adversity, made a way for us to go through this life in victory and to go through physical death into eternal life and joy on our appointed day.

What a powerful example of obedience and faithfulness we see in our Jesus and in our God!

Jesus obeyed and God made a way through, not just for Jesus, but for us as well because of Christ’s obedience (Romans 5:8).

Dear heart, we have a choice too, every day. Hundreds of choices in fact.

When things get tough, when adversity comes, we can look for a way out, just throw up our hands and quit, feeling like we’ve done enough or done all we can…we can try to manually override our situation, manipulate events or people to make things feel easier…or we can push through, obeying moment-to-moment, trusting in the faithfulness of God to make a way through for us, and most likely for others too.

Now, I’m not saying we’re going to do it perfectly like Jesus did. I fussed at the iFit trainer that morning for the resistance setting and the inclines on the path she chose. I dropped my cadence 5 rotations per minute below the recommended speed for a minute or two.

Beloved, God knows we’re not perfect. He knows we’re going to fuss some and slow some and maybe even bulk some, but still He is faithful in His love for us, faithful to make the way through for us (Psalm 33:4).

Keep moving friend. Keep obeying. In the big things and the small things. Keep your fingers off the controls. Your way through is coming!

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