Yesterday I received one of those emails that sparks something crazy in a person.

Watoto, the organisation that supports orphans in Uganda and raises awareness by sending teams out to perform concerts around Australia, invited me to this event:

I love riding my bike.

I’ve always wanted to see the Great Ocean Road.

Raising money for Watoto would be a good thing.

The organisers look like they are fair dunkum

The ride is about 300 km from Geelong to Warrnambool- about 100 km a day. I’ve often thought about doing a really long fund-raising ride (even back when we lived at Hay I fantasised about that) and I’ve felt like 100 km a day would be challenging but possible.

The good thing about this event is that it caters for all ability types, even the cyclically challenged like me. They also supply support vehicles and mechanics.

Of course reality is that I have never in my life ridden more than 25 km in one go, so I have to ask myself if my body (and more importantly my will power) is really up to this. I would have to get used to hill climbs, so maybe a few trips up the Nandewar Ranges would be on the cards.

So why haven’t I signed up already?

Well I’ve never been a sporty person and so in one sense this is so not me.

I guess I really need to know if it is God calling me into this- or at least it is something He thinks is OK.

Really, deep down the one thing that would stop me is fear of failure. I’ve had those times when my stomach has got into knots because I’ve pushed myself too hard. What if, when it comes down to it, I try and fail? What if I have to pull out half way?

I suspect that most of what stops me from doing a lot more outrageous things than I do is that fear- fear of looking stupid, fear of not being good enough, fear of saying the wrong thing. So dreams never turn to reality.

Well I guess I won’t know what I can do if I don’t try.

More thought and prayer required!