I'm going to assume for the sake of argument that you have been to an amusement park. For me, up until the age of 23, I loved every second at the amusement park. Eating food that should probably be banned in most countries, standing in line, riding the rides, wading through the crowds and being sad when it turned to nightfall because that meant it was time to go home.
I will never forget my first major roller coaster. I was 8 and beyond tall for my age. My family lived in Virginia so we had our pick of Kings Dominion which was 25 minutes away or Busch Gardens which was a little more than an hour away. My parents loved Busch Gardens because they could go to the shows while my brother, who is 6 years older, and I went and rode rides. When you walk into Busch Gardens, you can see the Lochness Monster roller coaster. It was massive and had two upside down loops in it. I truly thought I was ready for such an adventure. My brother was beyond convincing that I would be fine and off we went to stand in line. It had to be a hot day, or at least that's what I remember about almost EVERY trip to any amusement park. It was like a rule that you had to stand in ridiculously long lines in 98 degree heat or it wouldn't be a true experience. As we were standing in line, I ran the gamut of emotions from being super excited about my first major coaster to wanting to throw up. Who knows how long we stood in line but it truly seemed like forever. We got to the front of the line and the next train of cars would be ours. I looked at my brother and promptly told him that I was NOT going on. Just then, the cars pulled up. The gate opened, he pushed me forward and said, "You're going!" I guess he didn't want me to miss out on so much fun…or maybe he was just ticked enough at me that we had waited so long in line. I sat down, and pulled down the enormous bar and my legs were shaking. I was terrified and excited all at the same time. We got the thumbs up and off we went. The anticipation up that first hill about killed me and I'm surprised that I held it together. As soon as we reached the top, I saw the cars in front of us starting to go down the hill and I held on for dear life and just screamed. When we got to the end of the ride, I looked at my brother and said, "Let's go again!" He rolled his eyes and laughed.
It is funny to look back. Years later, I was on that same roller coaster and we got stopped halfway up that first hill due to some malfunction. We all had to walk down the tiny stairs that are attached to the track. That was by far, much scarier than the actual ride.
The experience that took me away from my roller coaster days was at Kings Dominion when I was 23. I had taken a group of youth and they knew how much I loved roller coasters. We decided to try this new one that was inside and in the dark. It went from 0 to 60 in 3 seconds and you could not see anything (hence the dark). We whipped around 3 corners right in a row and it knocked my head so hard that I almost blacked out. It was all I could do to get through the rest of the ride. I was so sick afterwards and clearly had a serious concussion and I was just doing my best to keep the youth from knowing that I was seriously hurt. I didn't ride another ride the rest of the day. Now, I minimize how many coasters I go on because the equilibrium has never been the same since. (pout pout) I truly miss riding them non-stop.
I bring up the roller coaster experiences because many people refer to life as a roller coaster. While I agree that life can have ups and downs, I would say that life is more like an amusement park. There are times when you will stand in line and await with anticipation. There are times when you are going to be strapped into a ride where you cannot get off and when you finally do, you might say, "Let's do that again…" or maybe you will say, "Never again". Then there will be times when you will need to have a map to know where you are going and other times when you can sit and watch a show. Bottom line, there are times in our life when I truly want to get off the ride and just puke. Being on this adventure and journey with God will always have ups and downs. But it is how we respond to Him and what He calls us to that is the real adventure. I cannot tell you how many times He has asked me to do something and I just sit there and say I don't want to get on that ride. He always manages to nudge me on anyway.
I was chatting with a friend today and she was getting bogged down in some serious life struggles. While it is easy to get caught up in the negative side of what could or could not happen, I suggested to her that was strap into the ride and scream together.
If you look back at the adventures that the disciples had with Jesus and all he asked them to do was to follow him. It is an exhilarating venture and if we are always standing at the gate, we will miss out on what He has in store for us.
So as I did my mile today, I was picturing the roller coaster and wanting to embrace it, hold on for dear life and scream with delight that God is allowing me to join Him along the way.
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