Long before I ever visited any website or even heard of Howard Publishing, a friend (probably the semi-legendary Philip Aspegren) shared with me a brief version of the tandem bike allegory. And, I was touched. Its simple truths helped me realize that even though I was a committed Christian, I still had a lot of surrendering to do. The word picture stayed with me, and I first wrote it down and shared it publicly in a talk I gave as the director of a men's retreat back in 1992.

        Eight years later, in November 2000, I polished it and presented it to Charles Edward, President of InspirationArt and Scripture. I had already written one poster for Charles, and he invited me to submit other ideas. He immediately recognized the potential of the tandem story and his designers actually turned my words into two posters with radically different photos, but identical text. Those posters, which continue to enjoy modest sales, represent the first use of the phrase, “Once Upon a Tandem.”

        Worth noting is that the text on those posters is about one-third as long as the book and identifies the partner on the bike as “JC.” The book, of course, never gives him a name.

        It was right around the time the posters came out that I became aware of a version of the tale being circulated on the web. It appeared under the title “A Bike Ride with God” or “The Road of Life,” and that story still shows up on hundreds of various websites for churches, ministries, clubs, and businesses. Maybe you've seen it. If you haven't, a version of the story – which is always credited to an unknown author – is included on the right. You'll see that it has its own charming style and lessons, and there is very little, if any, language that appears in both versions.

        Author Tim Hansel included a version of the story in his 1989 book, Holy Sweat. In a recent phone conversation, Tim told me that his wife had come across the story years before, and that neither he nor his publisher ever found the original author. I've been told the allegory is also a favorite of Chuck Swindoll and that he has shared it on more than one occasion. In any case, I don't claim to have come up with the core idea of “riding a tandem bike with Jesus." But, I do hope I've done justice to the idea by adding my own twists, turns and revelations. I will always be grateful to the unidentified individual(s) who originated and perpetuated the story over the years.

        In 2001, encouraged by the success of the poster, I re-polished my book manuscript, assembled a lengthy book proposal and began the tedious process of sending manila envelopes to potential publishers. I had a few rejections, but most of them were nice about it. (After two decades in marketing and advertising, my skin has gotten fairly thick.)

        Then, in the fall of 2002, I happened to be working on an audio project for Howard Publishing, and in one of the overnite packages that I was sending down to their West Monroe, Louisiana offices, I tucked in the Once Upon a Tandem proposal. (Quite a bold move.) Several weeks later, Chrys Howard left a message on my voice mail that mostly related to the audio project on which I was working, but – to my surprise and delight – she mentioned that she wanted to talk to me also about “the Tandem project.” Within weeks, we signed a contract and scrambled to get the book into the Fall 2003 line up. (Rex, LinDee and Philis did most of the scrambling.) All in all, a slew of people contributed to the book as noted in the acknowledgments .

        For the record, yes, my family did have a tandem bike as we were growing up. It was a gold-colored Schwinn Twinn, as I recall. My brother, Mark, and I along with the neighborhood rowdies played a game called “Bike Ditch” which was nothing more than tag on bicycles and whoever was on the tandem was “It.”

        And, yes, I still smirk when I see a tandem bike with just one rider. I hope now you do, too.