My Life on Rollercoasters

Many moons ago, I went to Disney World for Grad Night and I rode on a rollercoaster for the first time. I was anxious and nervous but not because I was scared of riding on the rollercoaster. I was actually looking forward to the ride. I was anxious and nervous because the girl I was riding with had never ridden a rollercoaster before and she expressed her fear that she might throw up. I had a pair of brand new dress shoes on (I don't know how the dress code is now, but, for Grad Night, guys had to wear a white shirt, a tie and dress shoes). I was worried that my shoes would get messed up and I had to wear those new shoes and not my trusty T,G & Y sneakers for graduation.
I took my first ride on a rollercoaster on Space Mountain. It was a piece of cake. It didn't scare me at all or bother me. At least it didn't bother me until we took the bus ride home. All day, on the bus ride from Lake Buena Vista back to Monticello, my stomach churned and I felt like I would throw up. I didn't care if I did it on the school bus (no charter buses for a poor public school like Jefferson County High) or on my brand new dress shoes, either! Who needed shoes to get gussied up for graduation? Not me. I didn’t care if I wore a pair of rubber boots I had worn to work at the dairy the summer before. I just need relief from the constant churning.
Fast-forward a few moons to 1999. I was at Wild Adventures near Valdosta, Georgia that day with my nephew, Ryan, and my youngest niece, Shannan. I had not ridden a rollercoaster since I had been a teenager. Space Mountain and Thunder Mountain Railroad were the only ones I had ridden in my life. Ryan suggested that we try out the Boomerang. I looked up at the huge monster, towering in the sky. I said, "Okay." Boy, I was about to find out the difference between Space Mountain and the Boomerang. First of all, you ride Space Mountain in the dark. Second of all, it was the light of day and I could perfectly see all those people on the ground below like ants. Third of all, I was more worried about my shoes getting messed up at Disney World but I had since developed a healty fear of heights. Fourth of all, my then 10-year-old nephew had negotiated so we could get seats at the front of the Boomerang and had said, "Well, I guess I've lived long enough. I guess I'm ready to die."
I rode the whole thing at the front, and I managed not to scream - even when the Boomerang stopped with me, riding in the front at the top (and not sure if the thing was broken) and then whipped everyone on board backwards. I knew then why it was called the Boomerang.
I disembarked from the Boomerang with my chest pounding harder than it ever had before. Ryan looked at me and said, "That was fun! Let's do it again!"
"No way!" I screamed back at him.
My life is like a rollercoaster. I have good days and bad days - sometimes on the same day. Life is full of twists and turns and bumps and burns. There are days that I worry about something as minute as getting vomit on my brand new dress shoes and there are days that I have to look up in the sky at a monster of a rollercoaster and say. "What the heck? I'll take a ride."
Through it all, I know that the Holy Spirit goes with me, giving me comfort, even if I'm going through a dark tunnel on Space Mountain or getting whipped backwards on the Boomerang.
Jesus told His disciples of a Comforter who would come and be with them, when he had gone: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (John 14:27)
I have that Comforter with me on the rollercoaster called my life.