Rich Dixon is thinking about help.

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After nearly 4 decades as a wheelchair user, I’m still uncomfortable accepting help.

Weird, I know, because I obviously can’t accomplish some tasks by myself. The FREEDOM TOUR ‘17 team talked through this odd personal quirk.

We began by discussing service. Jesus said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

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One of our team members made a pretty frank observation: I think as Christians we frequently twist the idea of service around. We serve too often on our terms, when and where it’s convenient.

I remember things getting awfully quiet.

I also remember spending a lot of time pondering her statement.

Jesus’ invitation to service didn’t involve picking & choosing. In his culture, servants knelt and washed stinky feet. Servants ate the crumbs… if they ate at all. Servants were the least and lowest.

I don’t seek out that role very often.

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In cycling culture, it’s difficult to ride faster than your comfort level, but perhaps even tougher to ride slower. When you’re tired and it’s hot and windy and hilly, it’s incredibly frustrating – and not much fun – to accommodate a different pace.

And our broader culture, of course, values individuality and personal comfort. In times of distress, it’s easy to fall back on cultural norms.

Jesus’ invitation to his version of service is truly counter-cultural.

We talked about what it would look like for our team to operate as servant leaders. We all sort of knew the answer.

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Bike tours demonstrate the difficulty of serving Jesus’ way. I’ve learned how easy it is to say the right things in a comfortable group discussion, then chuckle to myself as we behave under stress as though that discussion never occurred.

Jesus never said following him would be easy.

Next time… serving and helping and a new bike.