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Mitch Todd About Mitch

Filled Up

And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. —Acts 13.52

I got a bike!

The last bicycles my wife and I owned were ones we bought after our wedding, 17 years ago. We lived in this little apartment with no place to store them, so they sat outside in the rain and eventually rusted. I think we rode them twice. Pretty pathetic!

A couple months ago Jan bought a bike at the church thrift sale, and she's had so much fun riding, she convinced me to get a bike too. So last week we loaded up the bikes on the back of our car and drove across town to the trail. I put on my brand new helmet and drank a little water from my brand new water bottle, and with a deep breath I took off down the bike path.

And I thought I was going to die.

Every one of the very small hills we rode over were agonizing for me. I'll be the first to admit I'm not in the best of shape...but this was HARD! Jan was delicately coasting from one tiny rise to the next, and I was pedaling my guts out. I tried to remember—was biking always this difficult? We only made it about two miles that day. I just couldn't go any further.

If was not a great experience, but I vowed to try again. The next evening, as we were heading out to bike some more, Jan made an incredible discovery: My tires weren't even close to full. I had been riding around on half-flat tires! DUH! I hadn't really checked.

Has it ever happened to you? You're heading off down the road of life, rarin' to go, but you're not fully prepared? You've got a sense of the direction you want to take, you basically know how you're gonna get there...but you forget to get filled up for the journey?

Let me tell you, after Jan used her air pump to fill up my tires, I was a like a new man on a new bike. Since I was no longer trying to pedal up hills with flat tires, the ride seemed so smooth, so much more Joyful! I truly felt filled up, just like my tires. I was cruising up and down those hills like a man on a mission!

Now I know that it was just air in my tires... but it felt like the Holy Spirit. It felt like God was filling me up, giving me a new perspective—making the journey rewarding and meaningful. I really believe that God can do that. The Holy Spirit can fill us up and send us down the road joyfully. All we have to do is to make God-time part of our prep-time.

Well I learned my lesson. I'm checking the tires before we go out riding—it pays to be prepared. And I don't know where you're headed, or how you're planning on getting there, but here's a lesson for you, too:

The Holy Spirit can get you pumped back up...

Even if you're two-tired.

Have a good week,

Mitch
rmitchelltodd@yahoo.com

Discussion Questions

1. Can you remember learning to ride a bicycle?
   
   
2. When you hop on a bike, or get behind the wheel of a car, what pre-trip preparations do you make? (Or NOT make!)
   
   
3. Read Acts 44-52. In spite of the uphill climb they faced, why are the disciples rejoicing?
   
   
4. Who are the people in your life who have helped you fill up with the Holy Spirit?
   
   
5. Why do you think Jesus chooses to make us clean—even when we get dirty again?
   
   
6. How is traveling different when you know God is with you?
   
   
7. How do you get spiritually “pumped up?”