He remembers that we are dust

I am writing this whilst settling back into a chair in just the right position to hold an ice pack on to my spine between my shoulder blades.

This is just another part of my body to be subjected to the ice-pack treatment. Training for this bike ride has been one long saga of setbacks and injury. This latest one is not even related to cycling: I picked up something heavy at church on Thursday and felt it ‘go’. This old familiar injury is the one that makes my arms ache. Oh well, I’ll soon have aching legs to match.

My left ankle co-operated wonderfully with the training plan up until 10 days ago when it started ‘squealing’ loudly.  This pain has now been reduced to a steady background whine through assiduous use of the ice pack.  Talking of ‘steady background whines’ my tinnitus appears to be related to all the ibubrofen I’ve been taking for my ankle/back/teeth.  Actually now I don’t take that drug for my teeth, I take another drug which has the odd side effect of preventing me crying.

Now I didn’t ever used to cry ALOT but does seems a tad unfair to be in this amount of pain and not be able to have a good cry about it! Heigh ho. Am I giving you the impression I’m an old crock? Good. Because I am!

This morning I read Psalm 103

v 14 says ‘For he knows how weak we are, he remembers we are only dust’

I’m comforted by this. I am only dust, that doesn’t sound like too hard a calling.

The context of the verse is that the psalmist also reminds us how loving and compassionate God is – so I am not just dust. I am LOVED DUST.

So that’s okay.

Anyway, creaky though I may be, this pile of dust is about to put herself on a bike and cycle from East to West, which according to verse 12 is as far as he has removed my sins for me (although possibly the psalmist did not just have the UK in mind).

Why am I telling you all this?

Some setbacks should redirect us (see photo) others are sent to make us say ‘blow it, lets find a way round this’ or ‘b**** it, lets plough on through this’ (excuse my French) I am hoping and praying I’ll know the right response to the next setback whatever that may be because there will be another setback- that’s not pessimism on my part but just acceptance of normality.

So don’t get discouraged, you too are ‘loved dust’ and God’s love is as high as the heavens are above the Earth.

Ps – I apologise in advance for all the cycling updates. If you are already shouting ‘Enough already about the bike’ you may want to look away for the next week or so. But at least one person out there is interested enough to want to see the new aerodynamic haircut. So, here I am, complete with flashes of silver!