My legs were burning, my lungs gasping for oxygen. Every breath was ragged, reaching for that little bit extra as adrenaline coursed through my body, pushing tired muscles to execute the downward motion on the pedals one more time, and once more after that.
I was nearly an hour into a 20km bike ride I had signed up for to help raise money for a local charity. And while the road ahead had seemed like a series of undulating slopes, by the time my bike tires graced the incline, the hill had grown into a mountain.
The pain of the inclines
Now, by way of back story, I haven't ridden a bike seriously in a long time. I have one that I sometimes ride to the corner store down the road, but nothing like a cross country slog through undulating terrain. So it was a slight shock to the system to suddenly be facing hills and slopes that stretched on and on into seeming infinity.
By the top of the first hill, fifteen minutes into the ride, my legs were already feeling the burn and I knew I was in for workout. As the ride kept on, the compounded exercise took its toll.
It was sheer willpower that kept me going up the final incline before descending down to the finish line. So much so that, after crossing the line, collapsing onto the ground and catching my breath, I realised it wasn't my legs that were yelling at me for the punishment they had endured but rather my jaw! I'd been clenching my teeth so hard in that final push that my jaw was now piling on the pain signals!
The role of perspective
Things can look so different depending on the vantage point and the scale by which you measure. A small slope becomes much more real when trying to power yourself up it on a bike that suddenly grew an appetite and doubled its weight! That hill up ahead suddenly becomes a mountain.
In thinking about it after the ride I was struck by how much of a role perspective plays in my life. It can change my outlook on life, and in turn change my priorities.
When I view a hill as a mountain, I put in the work to make sure I can overcome it. When I view the mountain as a hill, my unpreparedness shows in my gritted teeth and sore jaw!
Being prepared
On a spiritual level, it can be easy to turn the wrong things into mountains—to prioritize the things that are temporary and of little value over that of eternity.
2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 18 NIV - “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
Fixing my eyes on the eternal requires making a focused change in perspective. Daily life is very much in the here and now, with all the present forces weighing on me and begging for attention. Do this, do that, go over here, go over there. Eat, sleep, work.
But I don't want to view eternity as a gentle slope I can tackle when the time comes. It is a mountain that requires preparation and focus so that I am well prepared to enter into it. Temporary rewards are instantly gratifying but ultimately worthless. The value of eyes fixed on the unseen is timeless. I can't see eternity, but I am made for it.
Thomas Devenish lives in Hobart, Tasmania. He works as a motion designer and enjoys the diverse experiences life has to offer, from wake-boarding to curling up with a good book on a rainy day.
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