Roller Coaster Ride

“He has made everything appropriate in its time.” Ecclesiastes 3:11

One preacher said, “Friends, if I were God your body would always be 18, you could eat anything and maintain perfect weight; your middle-aged wife would have the face and figure of an angel; your mid-life husband, thick hair and washboard abs; your youngsters as intelligent as Einstein; your teens cooperative, logical and consistent. Temperatures would be 72 always; snow would be warm, melting overnight; and there’d be no nasty people. Alas, I’m not God!” So we age, gain weight, struggle raising kids, shiver in winter, sweat in summer, and put up with difficult people. Welcome to the roller-coaster ride of life!

It’s neither punishment nor proof we’re fatally flawed; nor is it heaven or hell selecting us for “special” persecution, nor evidence we aren’t truly saved. No, it’s just life in the real world! Jesus said, “On earth you will have many trials” (Jn 16:33). As in the physical universe, there’s an underlying “law of wave mechanics.” In accord with it, our energy, emotions and creativity ebb and flow consistently. Sometimes we’re on top of the mountain, other times the mountain is on top of us. But whether at peak or trough, God’s law of wave mechanics functions – for our benefit. “There is…a time to weep (trough), and a time to laugh (peak); a time to mourn (trough), and a time to dance (peak)” (Ecc 3:1&4).

While it’s more fun to laugh than weep, “He has made everything appropriate in its time.”
So ... relax ... God, who is Alpha and Omega, determines the seasons of our lives. Whichever one we’re in, the Word for us today is: “My grace is sufficient for you” (2Co 12:9).