Seat belt, check. Harness, check. Thumbs up from the operator, check. Click, click, click. Up, we go. Obligatory poking and mocking the scared younger sibling or older grandparent riding with you, check. Momentary hang time at the top, and then... double fist pumped hands up, breaking the rules by standing up, smile on your face as  you scream... a 225 foot plunge and 1 minute 45 seconds of twisted metal and air time... then brakes... station... disembark.


Since my first coaster ride as a toddler, I lived for riding roller coasters. In fact, here is an embarrassing truth for you, when I was in middle school and seriously began contemplating my faith... for some reason, a major selling point of Heaven was whether or not it had roller coasters. In my mind, Cedar Point was heaven on earth and anything less in the afterlife would be entirely unacceptable. 

Yesterday, I went with my family to the site of my first coaster ride for the first time in four years: Kennywood Park. As usual, I rode everything, fists pumped in air, smiling pompously for the camera check points... yet, KP didn't provide its usually shot of adrenaline. I would have traded every moment of air time for a "real life" thrill - like cliff jumping, answered prayer, or just having a good laugh with the family. 

Thrill rides are popular because they give the false appearance of living life on the edge for just a few minutes. One hour in line for two minutes of adrenaline. There is this false illusion of taking a risk. In the midst of our daily lives where we cherish security, roller coasters provide an opportunity to test the laws of nature and defy the odds- within the confines of safety harnesses and the fact that hundreds of people have survived the same two minute experience before you even purchased your ticket. 

I still like roller coasters, I still like the air time and the speed, and I still like the false feeling of falling out of my seat... but I would much rather live life on the edge every day than pay $35 for a ticket to wait in line for a few minutes of adventure. Life itself is an adventure, one that we too often miss because we are too busy ensuring our personal security so that we can live from one fleeting two minute thrill to the next.

The sad thing is that Christianity sometimes seems like a roller coaster itself. We live from one spirit jolted experience to the next.... we harness up for mission trips, conferences, and altar calls... a few moments to satisfy our adrenaline fix and then disembark to return to the security of real life. Like the coasters at KP, Christianese events also have their safety features: they are relatively safe from embarrassment, they don't require much risk in our daily life, they have definite start and end points, the dumb faces that you make or fears that you have are confined within the boundaries of the park/conference center where everyone else is geared up for the same experience.... we have our comforting illusions of taking risks for our faith, have a few thrills and then go on our own ways at the end of the night. 

Don't know about you, but I would much rather live every day as an adventure, every day on the edge, every moment in awe of the thrill of it: God Himself...  I'm ready for Christianity without the safety harness.

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