No, I did not just turn 100, but I did have a milestone birthday a few months back when I turned 60. Jane invited any friends who wanted to give me a birthday present to contribute to a bike fund and I was able to get a great road bike on Craig's List, which inspired me to set a goal of riding my first century-100 miles in one day-before my next birthday. So, yesterday, May 17, I made my goal, about four months ahead of schedule.

I'll admit that I'm probably writing this blog out of some degree of typical male gloating, but I do have another reason. My goal in riding the century was not just to get into good enough shape to do it, but also to make a point. Sixty is a time of life when we're tempted to slow down and take it easy. That seems to be the message of the dominant culture; get ready to be put out to pasture and make sure your share of the pasture is as posh as possible. But, as we sometimes say, where is retirement in the Bible? The financial meltdown of the past year makes the same point-retirement is not guaranteed to anyone. Part of my biking message to myself, which doubtless applies to some of my Messianic Jewish colleagues as well, is that 60+ is a good time to develop new possibilities in life, especially some possibilities that might be of real help to someone else.

So, I took off yesterday at 6:00 am for the one-hour drive to Santa Fe, where the century began, sponsored by a big regional hospital. As I pulled into the hospital parking lot, there were hundreds of riders, with a decent percentage who appeared to be my age and older, including one guy with a bike club jersey from the "Santa Fe SOBs," Seniors On Bikes, inscribed with the motto, "You're only young once . . . or maybe it's twice." We were set to ride a loop through the foothill country south of Santa Fe, skirting the old Spanish village of Cerrillos, the 19^th century mining-town-turned-schlocky-tourist-stop of Madrid, over a pass in the Ortiz mountains and out onto the edge of the high plains, cruising back to Santa Fe at 7000 feet elevation with a view of the snow-capped Sangre de Cristos guiding our way.

 Riders get ready for Heartbreak Hill (top); the hill (bottom)

The pass through the Ortiz mountains, termed Heartbreak Hill, was the highest point of the whole ride. With proper engineering it would have been a reasonable route, but the highway department was on a tight budget when they laid this one out and the road just went up and over the pass. I had to walk my bike the last half-mile or so (and my male ego insists I let you know that I was not alone in walking at that point), and I heard a bike behind me moving up to pass on my left. As it went by, I saw that the rider was a one-legged guy in his thirties on a one-pedaled bike. I saw him a number of times throughout the rest of the day on our way back to Santa Fe, as he and his female riding partner kept a normal pace throughout the rest of the day. I'd imagine that at some point he had to re-invent his life and decide to do 100-mile bike rides with one leg, which seems like a bolder effort of creativity than starting to do 100-mile bike rides at the age of 60.

So, older fellow Messianic leaders, there's a message for us here: This point in life's journey is a good time to re-invent ourselves, not a time to set our sights on Florida, plaid Bermudas and decaf, but to find creative ways to use the gifts and experience with which Hashem has blessed us, and to stay in shape, physically, mentally, and spiritually, so we can do it.

There's a caveat, though, as we retool ourselves for another two or three decades ahead. We need to keep our younger colleagues in mind (see my recent blog on the Young Leaders' Retreat). Younger, emerging leaders should not need to do battle with a bunch of old gatekeepers to gain a place at the leadership table. The day I'm writing this is Day 39 of the Omer (the count of 49 days from Passover to Pentecost, or Shavuot). The UMJC is sponsoring a prayer campaign through this period and the focus for the week is on "those with the wisdom of years," a nice way of saying old guys like me. (Notice how we seek euphemisms for older people, a sure sign that age, which Proverbs 16:31 describes as a crown of glory, carries a stigma in our topsy-turvy twenty-first century.) The more specific focus for today is "Deep connections between the generations." As we seniors do our best to stay on the ride, and even to take on new challenges and develop new influence on the ride, we need to make way for those who are coming up behind us and cheer them on as they overtake us.

Some of us might qualify for a senior discount at the movies, but we still have a ways to go before we match Caleb's age of 85, when he made this speech to Joshua:

"I am still as strong today as I was on the day that Moses sent me [45 years earlier]; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war, and for going and coming. So now give me this hill country of which the LORD spoke on that day; for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities; it may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall drive them out, as the LORD said."

Then Joshua blessed him, and gave Hebron to Caleb son of Jephunneh for an inheritance. (Joshua 14:11-13)

So, at whatever age, we have an inheritance still ahead of us. Our retirement plans may be battered, but the Lord's guarantee is holding up just fine and it is still time to take hold of it.