"What a God! His road stretches straight and smooth. Every God-direction is road tested. Everyone who runs toward him makes it." Psalm 18:30 the Message
I read this verse today and it reminded me of a story---
The photo's above are from our trip to Lucca, Italy this past summer. Lucca is a cool city in Tuscany that was founded by the Etruscans. It is a beautiful city that is set inside a ring of Renaissance walls that are still standing today. These walls are thick and Lucca now has a bike path on top of the walls. You can rent bikes and ride around the old city portion on them, all while looking down into these beautiful private gardens and enjoying the amazing Tuscan architecture. It was for this reason that we chose to go to Lucca-- because riding on a bike on top of ancient city walls sounded like a fun adventure worth trying.
When we wondered into a bike rental shop, we discovered something really fun! A four-person bike, and so we decided to forgo the tradition single person bikes for this one. Jeff and Keagan set up front and pedaled, Keagan was in charge of steering (God help us all!) and I was in charge of navigation and photo's. Win, win!!!!
So, with adventure in mind we set off. What they don't tell you when you rent these bikes is that in order to get on top of the wall you must travel up a ramp. A very steep ramp. It didn't take long before we also realized that unlike our bikes at home, there was no gear shift on this thing so that you could shift down to help you as you pedaled like mad to get to the top of said ramp and wall.
Lucky for me, I had strong bike partners! So, once we made it to the top we began to make our way around the city walls. It's a pretty path lined with trees, some old Roman ruins, parks, Tuscan views, and views of the old city.
About halfway into the ride, we discovered something else that the bike shop rental place didn't tell us-- they were doing some repair work on the wall and a portion of the path was closed. We sat there and debated about turning around and heading back, when we noticed another ramp that led off the wall. So, in all our brilliance, we decided to detour. To take the ramp down, travel along the wall for a bit, and take a ramp back up once we got past the construction. So, off we went.
It was while going down the ramp that discovery number four was made-- the "brakes" on this contraption were not as good as they needed to be. And the ramp we were taking down merged directly into a road where motor vehicles were traveling. Hmmmm..... Have you ever witnessed the slightly crazed way Italians drive their cars? This could be interesting. We kind of gritted our teeth, prayed a little, and went for it. When we made it we felt a little like Indiana Jones did when he outran that big boulder in the opening scene. We all sat up straighter, puffing with pride, at our mastery of said ramp. I'm sure to the locals we looked like just another set of weird, slightly crazed tourists with a mild death wish. Whatever. We had already survived driving a rental car through the crowded and confusing streets of Florence while our GPS cycled crazily between "lost signal", "rerouting", and "turn left here" when we were in the right hand lane! We could handle a little detour on a quad bike.
So, having made it down said ramp, we immediately set off to find our detour. The problem with old, etruscan, tuscan cities is that they were often built without straight lines, or without any sort of order or plan to them. The simple thought of following the wall came to a halt at the discovery of the fact that the streets didn't necessarily follow the wall. The street we were on actually dead-ended at a huge public building, which hugged the wall closely. So, determined, we turned inward towards the city center in order to detour around said building. At this point, the nice, smooth, modern road we had been traveling on became an ancient, cobblestone road. Very pretty, very picturesque! Very, Very, Very bumpy! As we travelled down this road, our teeth rattling inside our heads, another observation was made--- this road was much, much narrower. And there was a car coming towards us. And said car took up most of the road space. Hmmm....... We somehow managed to squeeze by each other and continue on our way, weaving through old streets, trying to find a way back to the safety and smoothness of the wall. I found myself getting a little uptight about this detour. Worrying about whether or not this was allowed. Worrying about how we were going to get back to the wall. But then my husband began to laugh, and my whole perspective changed. I was in Lucca, an amazing city in Tuscany, with my two favorite people on earth! We were on an adventure together. I needed to lighten up and enjoy the ride! It was at this point that the bike began to make some interesting noises while traversing this rough path, and we began to laugh riotously. We passed many locals who I'm sure thought we were insane!
Eventually we made it back to the wall. Went up another steep ramp, and finished our trip around the walls of Lucca. And we now have an adventure to remember.
I want to talk about the detour portion of this story. We often have a picture of the path we are going to take in life. We know that there may be some hard ramps to climb that require some hard work, but we often expect the path to be mostly smooth and free of trouble. When we run into a detour, we stumble. We then decide to take a detour telling ourselves it will be easy. That we will simply go around the obstacle in our path and return to the path once the obstruction is by-passed. Isn't it so like life that the detour becomes more involved than we planned for? Isn't is also like life for the detour path to be rougher and harder to follow?
At some point in this detour, we have some decisions to make. We have to decide whether or not to continue on or to give up. If we continue, we have to decide how we are going to continue on-- are we going to simply grit our teeth and muscle through? Are we going to continue on the detour and complain and make ourselves miserable? Are we going to seek God and the path he lays out for us, or are we going to continue to struggle, lost and on our own? Are we going to laugh, and find the joy in the adventure, while keeping a sharp eye out for the ramp that will lead us back to where we need to be?
My encouragement for you is that if you find yourself on an unplanned detour today, take a moment to stop and recognize how you are feeling. Make some decisions about where you want to steer your bike. Endure the bumps and rough spots. But also take a moment to find some piece of joy in the adventure. Refocus on God-- He will help you find the right path. It will change how you get through the detour. And when you are finished, and back on the right path, boy will you have some stories to tell!
I'll leave you with a few more photos from the incredible city of Lucca. Enjoy!
