OK, so several weeks ago I mentioned that I was going to be observing a new practice: The Daily Offices of Prayer.

I’ve been using a book by Phyllis Tickle, The Divine Hours, and I’ve been observing the morning and evening prayers, and, whenever possible, the midday prayers.

Let me tell you, it’s amazing! I’ve noticed my entire life become significantly more focused on God. The best way I can think of to describe it, is to say that my life has gone from starting out in prayer and moving into the daily grind, to each day revolving around moments of prayer. My entire day has become bathed in prayer. I’ve found that, even though I am observing some specific moments of recited prayer, my spontaneous prayer life has become considerably more active and enriched.

Furthermore, I’ve had several opportunities to actually pray the offices with several of my fellow Christ-followers. These have become some of my most treasured moments! When I pray alone, I am amazed at how much I feel the presence of believers around the world praying together at the same time, saying the same thing. You can’t even begin to imagine how much more profound this is when I’m actually able to take a few minutes at a coffee shop, or anywhere, and actually pray with other people, and we, in turn, are praying with others the world over! Talk about unity and togetherness…

Well, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about this lately, and it suddenly occurred to me: What if we put the power of the internet behind this kind of prayer? What if there was a way for anyone who wanted to pray “with the church”, as Scot McKnight puts it, to do so, in person, so to speak, even if they couldn’t get out of the house, or couldn’t get to a location where other believers are gathering?

Here’s the thing: There is a way! I don’t have it entirely figured out, yet, but we’ve got all kinds of tools available to us, like MSN and Skype, and a whole slew of other messaging and communication programs, and I intend to find a way to use those tools to let people connect and participate in prayer together, whether they are on a phone, or online, or even a cell phone.

Now, like I said, I don’t have this figured out, yet. I’m still trying to find a simple solution that gives the broadest results. So, if anyone has any ideas of any tools I can look at, preferably fairly low cost, or even free/open source, let me know.

For those of you who would like to start participating, even though we can’t talk to each other yet, check out Explore Faith. Simply scroll down, select your time zone, and then it will display the prayer for that time of day. I also highly recommend reading the notes to help you use the prayers in the left menu on the page.

So, I told you I was going to blog my way through the winter on my bicycle…

Lesson number 1: Don’t wear bicycling shoes when it’s below 30 degrees!

Let me tell you a story. Last week, on Thursday, I had a meeting with someone from a church about 7 miles away. I normally don’t where bicycling specific shoes to run around town. They are kind of hard to walk in, and really just aren’t worth the trouble unless you are going to be riding more than about 5 miles. So, I packed my normal shoes in a bag, put on my bicycling shoes, and off I went.

Mind you, bicycle shoes are designed to breathe. They pass air through very easily, so that your feet don’t sweat. On my shoes, the entire top of the shoe is mesh, a very thin mesh. It was about 30 degrees outside, and I was pedaling into the wind, averaging 15 miles per hour.

I thought my feet were going to fall off! They were so cold, they felt like bricks of ice attached to the end of my leg. I actually stopped several times, unclipped my shoes from my bike and sat on the ground on the side of the road rubbing warmth back into my feet. Needless to say, I left my normal shoes on for the return trip.

Well, this led me to do a little research on what to do about shoes in the cold weather. And, I found a fantastic company that may have solved not only my shoe dilemma, but also my rain gear problem.

Shower’s Pass. They make all kinds of bad weather/cold weather gear, and it seems to be some of the best stuff available, albeit a little pricey.

My biggest two complaints are 1) the shoe covers are only available in burgundy, navy and olive. I really wish there was a black option. That would seem like a more universal color, if they are only going to offer a small selection of colors.

And, more importantly (warning: Geek rant!), 2) they use flash on their website…I hate flash. It typically loads more slowly than standards based markup, and it absolutely doesn’t work on my phone. Besides, I can’t use a screen reader on it (which I do frequently).

OK, I’m done doing my geeky little rant, back to the shoe covers. I’ve ordered a pair of shoe covers, and I’ll report back and let you know how they work!

OK, so I’ve briefly described the different kinds of bicycles. I mentioned that I didn’t think that any of them meet the needs of what I like to call “lifestyle bicyclists”.Here is the problem: None of these types of bikes make it easy to take a laptop between the office and home. None of them can carry a load of groceries very easily, at least, not without some serious planning. You need pannier bags, which are kind of like saddle bags for a bicycle, or a rack, which can’t hold very much at all, or a trailer, which really requires quite a bit of planning to use on a daily basis. Or, you could use a backpack, but that’s not good for your back, and you have a HUGE sweat mark on your back for twenty minutes after you get where you’re going. And, about half the time, you find yourself riding with one hand, while holding the bag on with the other hand. It’s not exactly safe, and it’s a real pain, trust me.My dad is a bicycler as well. But, he is kind of in the middle. While I am looking to replace all of my personal transportation with a bicycle, he enjoys the races and the cross-state rides. But, he also enjoys commuting to work several days a week. He’s kind of got his foot in the lifestyle camp, and the sports enthusiast camp…but I don’t fault him for that Anyway, he found something called an XtraCycle. Let me tell you, these things are cool. They are designed for the commuter. They are designed to make bicycling a part of your everyday life, and not just something for the sport enthusiast or racer! You should check out their website. They have a really cool product.I’ve actually just ordered one, and I’ll let you know how it goes. I’m pretty pumped. I think it’s going to solve most of my commuter bike problems! Now, if I can just find a good solution for rain gear that works for the everyday commuter, not just the serious racer…

Today, I’m mainly going to point out that most information for bicyclists out there is geared at racers or sport enthusiasts. There isn’t much info for people who are trying to integrate bicycle commuting into their lifestyle. Hopefully, this can be some small step towards changing that.

As far as some background info on bicycles for those that are uninitiated into the language, there are several types of bikes. Each type of bike is specifically designed to meet the specific needs for different types of bicycling. If you are thinking about getting a bicycle you should talk to someone who know bikes…like someone at your local bike shop, or a friend who rides

Mountain bikes have really wide, knobby wheels and are designed to be ridden off road on the dirt. They are usually made out of a relatively heavy aluminum and are designed to take a serious beating. On the road, these bikes are slow and clunky, have high rolling resistance, and are terribly inefficient. (Trust me, you may think you have a wicked mountain bike that handles great on the road, but one ride on a bike designed for the road, and you’ll never go back!) These include the bikes you buy at Wal-Mart for your kids, or that you see in BMX style sports. These bikes are off road bikes, and they are fantastic at it!

Road bikes are designed to go on the road. Don’t take them off road or you’ll have bent rims and flat tires. They just go on the road. But, they go on the road amazingly well! They are super efficient, require very little work for the distance traveled, and have amazingly low rolling resistance, which means they will roll seemingly forever. They are usually constructed out of super light carbon. (I’ve read about entire bikes, including the wheels, that weigh less than 3 pounds!) They usually have high pressure, super smooth, super thin tires…if you didn’t know better, you’d think they were bald, but they’re supposed to be that way, it decreases the rolling resistance. These are the bikes of racers, sports enthusiasts, tourists and long distance travelers.

Hybrid bikes are in the middle. They usually have medium width tires, with knobs on the edges and smooth middles. They are typically constructed out of lightweight aluminum. These bikes are designed to go under 10 miles, frequently. They are great for running to the store, and riding to work. They aren’t as efficient as the road bikes, but they are much better on the road than a mountain bike. I currently own one of these bikes…namely, a Specialized Globe Sport.

These bikes are great, but they I don’t think any of them meet the needs of riders like myself, people who are integrating bicycles into their lives.

Next, I’ll explain why I think that. See ya then!