Someone wisely said that “People are more motivated to change when the pain of staying the same is worse than the pain of change.” I’ll give you a second to process that. Some might call this rock bottom.
In less than a week, 12 men and women from Faith Mission and Faith Refuge will cycle in the Hotter N Hell endurance ride. Most of them will try to make it 50 miles, with every mile counting towards the KMOC Challenge. The men and women in the New Beginnings Program at our shelters are proud to ride on Team KMOC and support such a great cause. But that is only part of the reason they ride.
You see, many of them have endured years of drug and alcohol abuse and have survived to tell about it. For many of them, this ride is to prove to themselves that they are back. They can do things the normal way and the right way.
They can take care of their bodies and discipline themselves to do something they couldn’t do before. They can finish.
They will also benefit greatly from the experience of being on a team. There is just something about working together with others to accomplish a task. They will cheer one another on and be there for each other. They will literally learn what it means to carry one another’s burden on those long stretches of back roads.
They will feel the pain and the heat and dig deep to go on. And they will also feel the pride of crossing the finish line with thousands of others who have gone before them and finish after them. They will know what it’s like to be a part of something bigger than themselves.
These are all lessons you can’t teach in a classroom. They are learned in real time by putting in the work. And I can hardly wait to hear the stories they will be sharing when they get back to the shelters. Stories that will remain with then for the rest of their lives.
And this old man. Well, I’ll be watching from the sidelines, living vicariously through them … and hoping their time on a bike with a team accomplishing something this great will mean as much to them as it did to me.
Ride on, brothers and sisters … ride on.
