resurrection and road rash reminder
When I was a kid it was easy to remember when Easter was coming. Easter more or less correlated with spring break. Now that I’m an adult I don’t have a spring break, so it’s harder to remember when Easter is near. Well I guess there are all sorts of reminders, I guess I just don’t really pay attention to them. People talk about what they are giving up for Lent. And of course sermons leading up to Easter talk about the significance of Passover and Easter. So I guess it’s just my obliviousness that makes me forget about the most important Christian holiday.
This year I was reminded of Good Friday and Easter in sort of a roundabout way.
Recently I opened a new stock account. The funds got transferred in on Thursday, so on Friday morning I went in to make my trades. Usually I set market orders, which more or less trade immediately. So I confirmed my trade and checked to see if it had been placed. It hadn’t. This broker was new to me, so I figured it was just slower than my old broker. I waited a bit and checked again. Still no. Then I remembered that the markets were closed for Good Friday.
On Saturday I was pretty free so I went on two bike rides– one with Ray along the levees south of Sacramento and one with Jiro towards Winters. (Ordinarily the three of us would ride together, but the scheduling didn’t work out.) During my first ride I was reminded of what road rash felt like. Near the beginning of the ride I took out my cellphone to take a picture of a drawbridge. While taking a picture of the bridge I hit a big pothole and before I knew it I was on the ground. Luckily I wasn’t really hurt (just my pride), I just had some random bits of road rash near my knee, my elbow and on my hands. So we continued on, making it to the old historic Chinese community of Locke before turning back. I had parked my car at a church parking lot. When I got back to my car there were people hiding Easter eggs, so I was reminded again of Easter.
My second ride on Saturday didn’t remind me of much, except how it felt to be fatigued. By the end of the second ride I had ridden about seventy miles, and I was completely drained. I guess that feeling’s a good reminder in and of itself. I’m signed up for a double metric in August, which is almost twice the distance (what was I thinking?!) So it’s a good reminder to train hard.
Sunday was Easter, which in itself is a celebration and reminder of Christ’s resurrection, which is central to the Christian faith. I was reminded of this passage from the bible.
17 If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. -1 Corinthians 15:17-19
It’s interesting how the bible itself even says, that if Christ was not resurrected, then Christians are basically the stupidest most pitiful people on earth. I am still thinking about what this means, so I guess I’ll just finish with that.
Things I’m thankful for:
- cycling buddies- (I had forgotten my shoes, Ray even lent me his shoes. If he didn’t lend them to me my toes would’ve been cut up pretty badly from the fall…)
- cycling gloves and arm and leg warmers (if I wasn’t wearing this stuff I would’ve had much worse road rash)
- faith that Christ has risen