Several years ago, my wife, Kim, and I used to ride road bikes together. We would ride country roads, service roads, all over our county. In our part of the county we have some big hills and depending on the heat, wind, and the amount of energy those hills can be pretty tough.
I learned a trick that a cycling friend shared with me about when he and his wife would go cycling together. At times his wife would have a tough time climbing hills because of any of the above mentioned and he would give her the hand of God. Curious me, asked what the hand of God was. He told me as they were riding he would ride beside his wife and put his hand on her lower back and it would help her go faster because he was helping push her as he rode beside her.
One day while Kim and I were riding she needed a little help so I decided to try the hand of God. I rode up beside her and put my hand on her lower back. She was able to go faster with less effort, thus getting her further down the road and conserving energy as I was giving her a little push.
The interesting thing about the hand of God was that I didn’t put much pressure on her back. I simply placed my hand on her lower back and slightly added pressure and her speed increased and her effort decreased.
I then understood why my friend called it the hand of God. When we are touched by the hand of God, we can begin to see an increase in our lives with a decrease in effort because no matter how hard we work we will never get as far as we will with God giving us the gentle push we need.
Are many of us like Kim was that day cycling, working hard putting forth a lot of effort and just not making the progress?
My challenge to each of us is to allow the hand of God to gently push us along with less effort and more distance. God often works through others so maybe we are the ones that need to pull up alongside a friend, relative, spouse, or stranger to offer our hand of God. We may be the one in need to allow someone to come up alongside us and give us the hand of God.
The hand of God will get us much further than we ever thought was possible.
Your Friend,
Aaron