Riding mountain bikes has always made me feel like a kid.  Back when I was a boy, I rode my Schwinn Sting Ray bike like it was a mountain bike—riding through coffee plantations, creating jumps wherever I could. When they came out with a front shock absorber for bikes, I thought the idea was the best thing since sliced bread (I don’t know when that was).

So, when a friend told me about the Santos Trailhead mountain bike course, I jumped at the idea.  Suddenly, any church meeting in Leesburg was a delightful excuse to take my bike up there.  Yes, my participation in Leesburg meetings both went up in terms of how often I went, and down in terms of hours spent sitting in the Green Room at the Life Enrichment Center.  Confession is good for the soul.  That was a long time ago.

Folks created that trail in the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway.  I thought it quite progressive of Florida to have a greenway all the way across the state like that, and quite generous in letting a group of guys build an extensive bike course on it (I got lost for about 20 minutes deep in the bowels of it – it’s really big!).

But last night I learned where the Greenway came from.  Back in 1567, the King of Spain proposed a canal to be built to cross Florida, allowing their bounty to be shipped quicker back to Spain.  In 1818 the US Government suggested the same thing, but for military purposes.  But it was FDR that finally provided funds to do it.  Big money.  Big project.  Big publicity.  Until somebody figured out that the salt water from the ocean was going to penetrate the aquifer, and eliminate potable water for all of Florida.

Both Kennedy and Johnson thought the idea was good and revived it in the 1960’s, and Nixon finally killed it.  YouTube has a great video on this, look under Boondoggle.

Boondoggle – what a great word.  It speaks to a government project that costs lots and lots of money, takes lots and lots of time, and ultimately ends in nothing.  The canal cost billions in today’s dollars, and ultimately yielded a mountain bike course?!

Boondoggle – one could argue that the human condition is just that.  Paul, in writing to the Ephesians said “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world.” (Ephesians 2:1,2).  How many prophets had God sent to redeem His people?  How many oceans parted, manna dropped, wars won, kings provided, for us to end up when Jesus came, “dead in our transgressions and sin?”

The remarkable thing?  Paul also said: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  And God isn’t just making a bike trail out of millions of acres of mistake, he has made us co-heirs with Christ – we have been turned into His children!  John said so in John 1:12: Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”

Wow!  God still has work to do in us, just as there is work to be done on the canal.  They created a dam, today it’s called the Kirkpatrick Dam, which creates the Rodman Reservoir in Putnam County.  To tell you about that is an article for another day. Our lives have plenty of remnants of our old life, just like the Cross Florida Greenway does.  Praise God He’s not done with us yet, and let’s pray the same for the old canal.  On that topic – let me know what you think should be done with the Kirkpatrick Dam.  But in the meantime, let’s enjoy praising the One who has redeemed us and made us whole.

Going bike riding,

Craig

In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.  Psalm 5:3