Bicycles and life

Roma's new "used" bike.

Early in the fall our ward did a clean up for a lady in our ward. We spent an afternoon cleaning up her yard and home. When all was done there was an old rusty bike in the yard. I looked at it and saw that it was an old style Columbia bicycle. We asked her what she wanted to do with it and she said just to take it to the dump. Roma has been wanting a cruiser bike so I asked if I could take it and try to restore it.

It sat for a week but then I decided to tackle it. I began by taking it apart. Everything was rusted and it became a real chore to get it into pieces. I sprayed everything with WD40 and started cranking on the pieces. Some just wouldn't come apart so I sprayed more WD40 and waited a few days and tried again. After about a month I had everything apart but the seat post. I went and borrowed a big pipe wrench and began cranking on the post. It still wouldn't move so I sprayed it again and the next day put the wrench to it again. It moved just slightly so I kept working at it and after about 15 minutes of cranking on it the rust broke loose and everything was apart. I thought that I would have to paint every surface but after rubbing some of the pieces with a s o s pad they began to brighten right up. Some pieces, like the rims were too rusted. I went ahead and painted them with a chrome paint and they looked all right, but eventually we need to buy some new rims. The fenders needed paint also. I painted them a pretty blue and then painted the frame white and the forks blue. It looked beautiful. I cleaned up all the bearings and gears and then had to remember how to put them back together. When it was all done it looked beautiful. I was unable to restore the seat so purchased a new one. The tires and handlegrips were also replaced. It was a great project.
I started thinking the other day that that bike was a lot people. Sometimes we get rusty with lack of use, both physically and spiritually. We need to get the rust out and sometimes it takes a little time. Conditioning takes time and patience. We don't get it great shape in a week or even a month. It takes time. The same thing happens with our spiritual life. We don't change our lives overnight, but over time. I think our society is way too impatient. We expect things too quickly. Life is a process and if we do it correctly we can turn ourselves into beautiful cruiser bikes.