Why are you going biking?! (13 Days Away)

Some people say that the number thirteen is unlucky.  I'm not really worried about it. 
As many of you know, in thirteen days I will be leaving with one of my best friends Nate Smith on a bike trek to spread the Gospel to New York City.  
Today is the first day since God told me that He would give me a bike that I have felt assurance about going and absolute peace.

In my support letter I didn't have the space to really explain how and why the bike trip developed but it is a pretty sweet story.  In December a large part of my life changed and a long-term relationship that I was in ended.  This was a strange time for me and sometimes it's still weird.  My relationship ended because we were trying to make one another into what each other wanted and were missing out on the awesome individuals that God had designed us to be.  The majority of my identity was wrapped up in my relationship and my identity wasn't 100% in Christ alone.  The end of this relationship opened the door to a journey of self-discovery.

When I was driving home from Harrisonburg right after this all had happened, I gave Nate a call.  As
usual he answered and talked to me and it was just another phone call.  However, he told me that InterVarsity was looking for more people (and guys in particular) to go on the NYCUP Spring Break trip so I called the leader and applied and thats how that happened haha.

I came back to Harrisonburg to start Spring Semester and Nate called me to hang out.  I had got hired at Campus Cookies, delivering cookies around Harrisonburg at this time, so we drove around and I studied the city more and where the different apartments were and all that.  We ended up at Nate's house and talked about the summer and New York and biking.

For a long time, I had known about this trip being on Nate's heart.  He even got some camping gear for Christmas for the trip.  Nate told me that he had told some friends from home about the trip and asked them to go and they said he was crazy and told him no.

Since then, some people have told me I am crazy so I know the feeling.  In high school I read a book called, Under the Overpass, which was the story about two college guys who left school for a year and lived homeless in five major US cities and shared the Gospel.  The book changed my life and my heart towards missions in a big way.  


Nate's vision and calling for this trip wasn't crazy because the same feelings he had were part of what makes up my identity in Christ and my calling.  It made perfect sense to me.  If we are crazy, then we are crazy together.  

After telling me about his attempts of gaining members for his trek, half-jokingly semi-seriously Nate said, "Soooo... if youuuu want to gggggooooo letttt meee knowwwww..." and I looked up at him and said, "I think I do want to go."  I told him that I would pray and think about it and let him know.  To be honest... I think he was a little surprised ;) 

The next morning in worship at Cross-link, during worship God told me very clearly, "Eric, I will give you a bike."  I texted Nate in church and told him, "I'm going." He texted back, "To NYC this summer with me?!?!?!" And I said, "Yes."

Ultimately, God has known about this trip way before me and I have just taken steps to answer His call.  I wasn't telling Nate, "yes," I was telling the God of the Universe...

"YES, LORD, I AM ALL IN AND I WILL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES."