They always looked daunting. It used to be that they looked like an intricate matchstick construction, and the sound of them was never reassuring. There within the maze of wooden planks was a course that threw the occupants up and down. The turns were always tighter than it appeared the construction would carry, and indeed, an observer could see the whole structure give as the weight of the thing flying around the bend would screech its way back to the vertical bumps and grinds. I confess that as a boy, I was very hesitant to put myself at the mercy of anything so unsteady.
Today, such contraptions are tame. Oh, there’s nothing like the feel and sound of a wooden roller coaster. But they are confined to the vertical, and today’s riders demand so much more. When I show up at a theme park, I look for the highest, most serpentine contrivance of steel pipe and nylon rollers I can find. It must not just go inverted, it has to corkscrew, and at the point where the rider would hope for the most safety. Yes, up at the top where height can add to everyone’s instability.
I’ve also noticed as I wait my turn, that both the terrified and to non-plussed walk away after the ride and leave room for the next set of fools. It has nothing to do with your attitude or your fear. Somebody figured out how to send thousands of people around the track and return safely. It’s what they do. Then other people test the thing every day to see that it works. If it’s not safe, they shut it down. So I just ride it and enjoy it and stay calmer than the poor fool I’ve cajoled to ride with me. I may regale them with dinner suggestions or potential structural flaws during the course of the ride. It makes for great sport.
There was one ride that I did not enjoy so much. It was at Disney World in the virtual reality pavilion. Before you ride, you spend some time designing your own roller coaster on a computer. There are any number of suggestions, some of which would never go into an actual roller coaster. Once you saved your design, you climb into a simulator where you get to “ride” your own coaster. Of course the simulator was not an actual roller coaster. It was like a flight simulator. You see where you’re going on a screen and the thing bounces you around like you were actually traveling. It fools your senses, especially those in your stomach.
I don’t know if it was the “California Wrap”, or some other Disney cuisine that began to work on my innards, but I soon realized that not all aspects of the ride were simulated. I regretted every bounce, twist, invert and jump that I thought would be cool when I designed it. Ours was not a good ride. I don’t know beans about designing a roller coaster and those that do would never hire me.
Life also has its ups and downs. Sometimes pleasant, sometimes not; sometimes challenging, sometimes dull. Often we get the feeling we’re just along for the ride, and we hope that someone actually knew what they were doing when they put it together. It doesn’t take long to discover that even when we think we can plan the ride itself, we are not much in control. Often the ride we plan is worse than the ride we could have let someone else design.
The Bible tells us we need to leave our lives in God’s hands. That doesn’t mean that the roller coaster of life won’t be rough, it just means that it will always bring us safely home. That’s important, because in the ride of your life, there are no simulators.
Rev. Dennis P. Levin