So, today I’m just sitting here under these cloudy and stormy skies and thinking about doing impossible, or seemingly impossible, things. I was a guy that allowed impossible to rob me of a lot. I believed if something to be impossible then why even try. I did a seemingly impossible thing a year ago today. I rode a bike across a scorching hot southern California desert what still seems like an impossible distance in brutal heat. Yeah, hot, really hot. It was 108 or so not to mention what the pavement was less than three feet below me. The distance…112 miles. Yes, 112 body fluid sapping, mind boiling, and skin frying miles. You cannot possibly imagine how hot it was unless you were there. I came to have a new appreciation of the necessity of water that day. I realized that, like many of us, I entertained a sense of entitlement when it came to clean available drinking water. I thought, as I rode, what if I had to walk miles in this blistering heat only to get dirty disease infected water. What if? What if I had to do it multiple times a day…every day. What if my daughters had to do it? What if they couldn’t go to school because of “fetchin” water? The clean water issue became very personal to me this day. As if it wasn’t clear enough, it became more real as we got separated from our support vehicle and a handful of us nearly ran completely out of water. I felt panicky and knew our options were beyond limited. I prayed that God would shelter us and protect us and provide as He always has and just rode on. Somewhere along the next few miles, I was riding alone and plain as I have ever heard anyone speak, I heard the voice of God speak. I am sure that some reading this might say it was the heat and lack of water. We always find excuses and other explanations when we don’t want to hear and acknowledge the voice of God. He is speaking to us all the time but we have lost the ability to listen and shut out all the interfering distractions. I know that’s why His voice seemed so plaintive as I rode. There was nothing but me, rocks and heat. So, I heard God say, “I didn’t bring you to this desert, like I did my son, to show you your weaknesses…I brought you here to show you your strengths…” WOW…Talk about getting knocked upside the head. I just rode in silence for a while thinking about what I heard. I realized how God empowers people in amazing and unusual ways to do incredible things for His glory. It was happening right here under my nose as I rode and I didn’t even get it…till now. So, I caught up with the rest of my friends and we were still trying to ration our collective water. I looked up ahead at this long amazing stretch of road and just continued to pray and believe we would be taken care of in some fashion. We talked of holding up our nearly empty water bottles at passing cars. However, one small problem….essentially NO passing cars. We were in the middle of a “no mans’ land” as far as traffic went. I continued to stare at the road ahead and way, way off in the distance I saw a speck on the road. I watched as it came closer to us and strained my eyes to make out the possibility of begging for water. Finally, the vehicle got close enough to make out and see it was a California Department of Highways pickup truck. We stopped and the truck rolled up and stopped and rolled down the window. The driver looked at us and said…”You all need some water?” I was so dumfounded I almost didn’t know what to say. He had the most AMAZING ICE COLD water and filled every bottle and bag we had and chatted a minute and was gone. Need I say more here? Coincidence? Are you kidding me? This was turning out to be a stunning day and we had MILES to go. Now I really had a lot to think about and I was so absorbed in the thoughts that the miles ticked by. The desert is stark but there is a unique beauty that lives in fragile coexistence unlike anywhere else I have ever seen. You wonder how there possibly can be any life here, but there is and it’s just more subtle. It was just amazing to me that we could ride bikes over 100 miles without one lick of shade. There was no escape from the sun except for a railroad bridge over a dry stream bed where we took a short respite. So, we pedaled and pedaled and it became Zen like watching the shadows on the ground. I am sure I became completely hypnotized for 30-40 miles. So, as the sun was sinking back into California, at our backs, we crossed out of our first state into the next almost seamlessly. Finally, the impossible thing has happened today…we were in Arizona at the end of 112 miles. So, tomorrow would be another really hot day in the Arizona desert but I guess we were starting to see impossible become possible and God was smiling at that. A lot…