Monthly Archives: June 2018

Windshield Time

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Have you ever tried to drive your car backwards on an interstate?  Or seen an olympic sprinter running backward in the 100 meter dash?

Of course not…that’d be silly, and frankly stupid!

Then why on earth do we spend so much time looking backward in the rear view mirror allowing our past to dictate our future.

In order to be safe, we drive our mini-van full of kids looking through the windshield.  Not staring in the rear view mirror.  Indy cars are built to drive at incredible speeds, so they spend their time fixated on the immediate road ahead, trusting the cars capability to lead them across the finish line.  To drive in reverse, would be incredibly dangerous.

In life, the same works for truth.  We spend way too much time allowing the past to dictate the future, fixated on trying to change what has happened, rather than accepting it and giving it to God.

Today, stop looking behind you, and begin praying before you.  I pray often:

Jesus, go behind me and before me. 
Jesus, be above me and below me. 
Jesus, be in the eyes of all who see me.
Jesus, be in the ears of all who hear me. 
Jesus, be in the hearts of all who know me. 
Jesus, be in the minds of all who think of me.
Jesus, be my all in all. 

When you pray this prayer, you are giving God all you have, all you were, all you want to become and everything others want you to be.

Don’t try to revise the past. Push forward giving God your Future.

Spend time driving your life looking through the Windshield; ask God to heal the road behind and pave the road ahead.

Pelotonia

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#Pelotonia. @Pelotonia.

Sometimes people ask me why do you ride? Why every year do you ride? Why do ride for cancer research in Pelotonia?

I look at them and I tell them…

That to you this may be just a bike. To you, this may be just a helmet. This may just be a water bottle, gloves and shoes.

But to me it’s life.  To me it’s my way out. To me it’s my ticket to freedom.

Every time I get on my bike. Every time I put on my helmet. Every time I strap on my gloves, I feel it and I think of my wife. I think of my mom & dad. I think of my kids. I think of my grandma Pat. I think of those afflicted with cancer. I think of the future I want for my family.

The future I have because I was cured.

When I ride that bike. I don’t ride for me. I ride for my kids. My wife. My friends. My family. For Jessica, Beck, Scott, Jackson, Pat and so many others.

You gotta stay focused on your goals and your dreams. You gotta hold on so tight that all the worries just wash away.

Some of you all don’t realize what it’s like to lose sleep because your dreams.  One day you get into bed and you realize that your dreams are dying because you are facing death.

You have cancer.

You can’t sleep. You are losing sleep, you want to sleep, you are too sick to sleep, too tired to sleep, too worried to sleep, too much to sleep, too much medication to sleep, too much radiation to sleep, too much chemo to sleep, too much noise to sleep…

…And then you survive…

Tomorrow is now another day to be great. Another day to carry on with dreams and success. You lose sleep because you now have a burning desire for your dreams. A burden to be something great. To be all you can be. 

Some of those who walked the Chemo halls are gone. They were diagnosed at the same time and they died.  They are gone. You look back and see those who did not make. You wonder why? What happened that I’m still here?

You lose your appetite. You lose sleep because you worry about their families who’ve lost a loved one. About Krista, Carl, Alice and Beth. You worry about follow ups. You worry about appointments. You lose sleep because you are praying your dreams don’t collapse again. You lose sleep because a friend called and needs help, cancer again. 

You lose sleep because of a burning desire to accomplish your dreams with your family while your alive. For your kids. For your wife. For your life. 

Everybody wants the easy way out. Nobody wants to put the work in. Everybody wants to know how to change but they don’t want to go through the pain.

You got to get up and do the exact opposite of what the people are doing. Stop being average. Stop working with average. Stop walking with average. Stop sleeping with average and eating average.  Stop praying to Jesus like average. Stop being average.

Sometimes it’s good to go back. It’s good to go back in the past and bring back those hard days. It’s good to reflect on the past, on the days you felt like giving up.  Reflect on the days of confusion when you felt like throwing in the towel of life. When it was too hard, but you made it. Reflect on how it felt.

Remember those nights when we stared at the ceiling crying in the bedroom holding hands. Remember those long drives to second opinions that you didn’t want to be at. The doctor who delivered the news with a face whiter than his coat. Remember those treatments, the IV, the operating room, the first fever over 104 degrees and the infection that nearly took your life.

Sometimes we have to remember how that felt. Remember the dreams nearly lost, or those that have lost their dreams.

Sometimes we have to remember how that felt. Sometimes you have to journey with someone on that path. Sometimes we have to reach out and sit with someone suffering and yes, even someone dying to be close to it. To have it change you. Sometimes we have to stop and be there, humble and contrite at heart. Allow our heart to change from stone to flesh anew. 

We remember how that felt for momentum. For momentum for the future. We remember how that felt to drive momentum for our dreams.

Sometimes you need adversity to come back stronger. You gotta understand this is the way life works. Life is designed to be for those people that are strong, humble to serve and be served. Am I going to be a victim or am I going to be the one out here feasting on life? Sometimes you have to thank God for the good you lost that forced you into greatness. Forced you into humble circumstances and created a heart anew.

Sometimes you have to remember how that felt.

Cancer. You may have counted me out this time.  Cancer. You may have taken the lives of some on the journey. Cancer. You may have counted me as victim, you may have punched me in the face, but I have plenty more cheeks to offer because I am a champion.  You may have counted me out this year. But I’m back. 

Cancer. Trust me, you are on my list. I am going to keep pushing for greatness.  I grind this year in Pelotonia. One Hundred Miles. One more year. That’s my mentality. I am never going to quit. I am going to grind to the grave. That’s my mentality. To live my dreams, and create opportunities for all to live their dreams. For my kids. For my wife. For my life. 

That’s my bike. That’s my helmet. That’s my shoes and gloves.  That’s my ride. That’s my training at five AM. That’s my basement trainer drenched in sweat.  That’s my hundred miles. That’s my Pelotonia. That’s my dream. 

One More Pelotonia – 2018. One more mile. One more year. One more dream. One more life. One more cure.

That’s my story. That’s my bike.

End Cancer. Now.

pelotonia.org/benhartings