Need A Hand?

Need a hand? When I was a young boy, my parents took my sister and me to the amusement park. It was usually the one set up at the Tennessee Valley Fair. The Fair had huge pumpkins, produce, and prize livestock, but we were most interested in the flashy lights, rides, corn dogs, cotton candy, candied apples and the games. The corn dogs were great but they came with mustard and my junior palate was not yet ready for the spiciness I now enjoy, so my Dad wiped the mustard off with his handkerchief, which he forgot about when he later tried to blow his nose… oops, sorry Dad! The carnival games were strange to me, with people who called out to you and tempted you to play, then heckled you to do it again and again when you lost, only to try to win a giant prize that wouldn’t fit in the car even if you had won it. We loved going to the fair because there were so many things to see and do and we got to stay up past bedtime and ride the rides. There were many multicolored flashing lights and a Ferris wheel, flying swings, a big swinging ship and a thing we now call the “Tilt-a-hurl” rather than the Tilt-a-whirl, because it twisted and tilted and spun so fast that many people disembarked from the ride and hurled their cookies. I think the amusement people hired teenagers who took just a little too much glee in how many people they could make sick. My earliest memory of riding any amusement ride was a giant spinning open topped circular cage that spun so fast that the centripetal force held you to the wall while the floor dropped out. The entire circular caged room with no top tilted and spun until the floor came back up under your feet and the ride came to a stop. My physician dad must have thought it would be fun for us to ride the human version of the centrifuge he used at his office that spun so fast that it separated the solids from the liquids and gas in various bodily fluids to help determine what was causing a patient’s illness. As the ride started I was standing against the wall next to my dad. I looked up at him, eyes wide with an excited but nervous smile. The RPM’s increased and we were spinning really fast, then the floor began to drop out slowly, most people were suspended against the wall with their bodies firmly stuck to the wall, but my scrawny little frame was not heavy enough and I slid down the wall as the floor dropped further and further. I looked up at my dad in panic, just as he was reaching down to grab me and keep me from being flung out into the crowd of TVA&I Fair goers, who were waiting to be spun around in the giant human juicer too. My Dad held fast to my hand and pulled me back up the wall as we waited what seemed to be an eternity for the floor to come back up and the ride to stop. I was shaken and scared, but it wasn’t long before I was ready to ride something else.

During this time when the world seems to be spinning out of control, we can feel too small to hang on and we fear being flung into the physical and emotional unrest of the pandemic, the disturbing political season in our country that seems to be fueled by distrust and fear, and the social unrest sparked by violent actions and reactions by so many different groups that has spiraled into hate. Our Rock, our Heavenly Father has more than enough weight and power to be our anchor when our footing is falling out from under us. He holds us through the spinning, and tilting and unrest and His grip on us is unwavering. The writer of Hebrews was concerned about God’s people, because there were many things that threatened the stability of their faith, so he tells them God is a trustworthy person in whom they can anchor their souls. He says, “God also bound himself with an oath, so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that he would never change his mind. So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary. Jesus has already gone in there for us.” Hebrews 6:17-20a (NLT2) We gotta remember that when this spinning world is shaken that our Hope transcends this world. Our relationship with God through Jesus Christ is the most solid, most reliable reality we have. Nothing on earth is more important than this relationship and nothing is more reassuring when we feel like we are losing ground. We gotta quit looking at the floor falling out from under us as the things we once thought were so solid don’t seem to be, and we’re gonna hafta look up and reach up for God’s hand like our brother Peter when he was walking on the water.

Hang in there people! God is with us! I’m praying for you all!