2 Nephi 2:11

Ever since I was a young boy, well over a decade ago, I have enjoyed riding a bicycle. As a teenager I would pedal through the hills of Bountiful, Utah to my grandparents' house to mow their lawn, to Bangerter Farms to help in their summer harvest, to my part-time job at Nielsen's Frozen Custard, and many other places. My father and many siblings also greatly enjoy biking, enough so that it almost seems like a family tradition. And the tradition continued on my mission as I rode a bike around the towns just outside of Westpoint, New York, and once even through Manhattan for an activity.

Upon returning home from being a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the end of 2013, it was time to start school again. But with minimal amount of money, and no straight-forward way to obtain a scholarship, my educational pursuits at The University of Utah needed to be accompanied by some form of part-time employment. Miraculously enough, my older brother Tayson had a part-time position at a nearby real-estate company called Main Street Valuations, and there was an opportunity for me to apply. With very little conflict I somewhat easily obtained this as a job with a decent pay. Even though its location was much further from home than anywhere else I'd ever worked, I still concluded that I could ride my bike there whenever time permitted.

But obtaining this job turned out to be the last big step of my life that did not face strong opposition. The homework that came as a result of pursuing a double-major in mathematics and applied physics was anything but easy, and often contained pages with well over ten layers of erased pencil markings. Further scholarship applications frequently involved hours of preparatory work that often ended in being rejected. Many dating experiences that were certainly not cheap, but initially seemed to show promising results, resulted in dead ends. And efforts to continue the work I'd done in New York in sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with classmates and work associates usually produced nothing but dismissal, and occasionally criticism. It seemed as if there were some adversarial power combined against every good effort of mine.

Of course I've never been one to just simply give up at the first show of opposition, but eventually it started wearing on me in a way that I needed a new perspective and heavenly help. While riding my bike along Beck Street into Salt Lake City one morning on my way to work, I came to notice that my bike riding paralleled my life in one particularly noticeable way. While working hard on the pedals, it seemed as if there was never a moment when nature itself was opposing my goal of moving forward. All I could feel was wind blowing directly against my direction of motion. The faster I tried to move, the faster the opposing wind blew. If I turned a corner or even all the way around, the wind immediately adjusted itself to again attempt blowing me backwards. And when I was going slow enough up a hill, gravity exerted every effort to pull me down from the summit. And all these opposing forces would only seem to stop when I dismounted and stopped moving. "But wait..." I thought to myself... "are these opposing forces really what I'm perceiving them to be?"

At that moment I realized that what I perceived as attacking wind was nothing more than wind resistance that naturally occurs while moving through air. And the adversarial gravity was simply just an indication of gaining altitude. The oppositions of riding a bicycle were simply consequences of moving forward! Upon gaining this enlightenment, a beautiful scripture from The Book of Mormon that I had long loved was brought to mind:

"For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my first-born in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad..."         ~ 2 Nephi 2:11

This gave me a new perspective on the current circumstances of my life. Rather than being the source of some adversarial enemy, the many oppositions I was facing in my life were simply indications that I was moving forward in life. For example, math and physics homework was hard because I was learning new concepts. And the many other difficulties I faced were simply indications that God was actively involved in my life preparing me for future opportunities that I did not yet see. 

I still face oppositions in nearly every aspect of life, but I came to have a new and much more optimistic perspective. Rather than becoming discouraged and overwhelmed by opposition, I've come to see that it is a naturally occurring force that is simply an indicator of moving forward, growing, and improving in life. A simple, but profound, parable of the bike-rider helped me understand a great truth that I couldn't previously see. The stronger the wind resistance or gravitational pull is in your life, the greater your speed of growth and improvement is. So when winds blow against your good efforts of life, don't slow down or stop. Simply continue pedaling and take the opposition as a complement of forward movement towards wonderful accomplishments.