Cruisin’

Cruisin’

My first big-girl bike was a shamrock-green Schwinn with reverse brakes, no gears, and a basket. My sister’s was identical. I rode this simple two-wheeler a few blocks down the street to elementary school each day of my first- and second-grade years. I wasn’t “going green”; I was simply going where the state of Texas required me to go, in the manner in which my parents instructed me.

When we moved to a bigger city, I began to take the school bus to school. My bikes were more complex, including the bright-gold, curve-handled ten-speed I took to college and used to zip from one corner of the sprawling campus to the other.

Lately I’ve been wishing for that green Schwinn again. Maybe it’s the way spring has blossomed in my sleepy neighborhood, but I itch to go cruising again on two wheels. And not bent over, clicking through gears to get there, but the way I did all those years ago: slowly, with my head up, noticing things around me.

There is a cost to moving through life too quickly. Speeding along may be a time-saver, but it’s not a lifesaver. Focusing on small things rather than the broader view may seem shortsighted or even irresponsible, but limits do not necessarily mean loss. In fact, whole worlds can open up in the smallest, most obscure vistas. They might appear on my own block—and I could perhaps catch a glimpse of one today. But only if I choose to cruise instead of dart and dash.

Calvin Miller writes, “The believer who wants an in-depth affair with Christ must not allow time clocks and ledger sheets to destroy that wonderful holy leisure by which we make friends with God.”^a

Perhaps I’ll find a new, modern cruiser. Maybe I’ll find a used one in good condition, or one in a nostalgic, bright-green hue. But I can still cruise without it, allowing myself moments where I may catch the gently blowing wind of another world and focus my heart on the subtle glimpses of it.

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.

1 Corinthians 2:9

^a Calvin Miller, The Disciplined Life (Bloomington, MN: Bethany House, 2011).