It will never happen to me…
I have always owned a bike and up until I was 17 or so was rarely off one, how many punctures did I have? None. I bought a bike 10 years ago put plenty of miles on its clock and still own the bad boy. I’ve used it on various occasions to cover a variety of terrain and I’ve clocked up countless hours on turbo trainer on it. So since childhood how many punctures have I had? One and that an understandable one as I cycled through some very dodgy waste ground.

So as I set off on a ride down the Lagan Towpath (Lisburn) a puncture was far from my mind. Truth be told I was in foul form and was more interested in trying to escape that more than anything else. In fact, so foul was my form I told my wife that if it didn’t leave me soon I was going to serve myself with an eviction order as I was having trouble sticking myself.

5 miles in and the bike was hurtling down the towpath at a great rate of knots, it was eating the path and all before it and I was a happy boy. I was confident of doing the 20 mile round trip to Stranmillis and back and the form was starting to improve. I had just arrived at Lady Dickson’s park, had stopped for a swig of juice and was climbing back on board when I realised my front tyre was flat. My heart sank and my temper raged as I realised the walk I had in front of me back to the Lisburn Civic Centre. Twice the fantasy went through my head as I raged of throwing the bike into the canal but no that wasn’t an option. As I walked with bike by my side old couples would look at me with smug grins and offer words of comfort like “Oh dear”. To be honest they were lucky not to go for a swim too.
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Gradually but as I simmered down I began to laugh at myself as I reflected on how negative my thinking had been. For the past few days all I had seen was black, everything was dark and nothing was solvable. The world was on my shoulders and I was predicting that everything would result in the worst case scenario. I felt a challenge with in me to worship in the midst of all this despair and anger and as I did I started to feel lighter. I started to count my blessings and thank my King for them and as I did light poured in. It was a good time and evidences how all things can work for good.