Last week, I was taken back to my teendom in my mind. I was privileged to go “tubing” behind a boat, something I hadn’t done in several years. I had great fun on this large inflatable sled tied to the boat as the boat driver zigged and circled, up and down the lake, bouncing the two other riders and me into the air and skipping us across waves like a rock skips over the water when thrown just right. As I was slung off the tube by centripetal force and a large wave, I had to check to make sure my britches were still on! I was whisked back to my teen years in my head, when we used actual old tire inner tubes with an old rope tied to them. As a teen, I also had the privilege to be the boat driver for tubers (what were my parents thinking?). The object of tubing was to try to get the rider off the tube in some spectacular fashion, including, but not limited to, flipping rider off the tube in a wild spin across the top of the water and/or a spectacular airborne body launch caused by the tube hitting a large wave sending the rider flailing into the air and splatting on the water. Some tube riders would hang on even when the tube flipped! The driver I had last week was a masterful tube driver who has been known to get a rider off the tube within the first 30 seconds of the ride. He had mercy on me as an old man and gave me and my two other tube-newbies a good long 10 minute ride before ejecting us from our air-filled raft with precision skill. Drivers are the ones who decide when it was time to let his next victims/riders have a try. I was like the carnival ride operator who decided when the “tilt-a-hurl” ride was over, even though someone was screaming to get off and about to lose the corndog they just ate. Everyone on this trip though, came off the tube with a smile on their face. A great time was had by all, but I am a little sore from being flung gleefully around the lake.
Sometimes in our spiritual life, it feels like all we can do is hang on when the temporary ruler of this world is trying to get us to let go of God. The Apostle Paul was reminding God’s people to hang on to Jesus, because Jesus is hanging on to us, ensuring our safe arrival to heaven when our ride around the Sun comes to an end. Paul says, “...I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12-14 NIV11) When the evil one is trying to get us to fail spectacularly and let go of our faith, we can be reminded to keep hanging on because Jesus has a hold of us. He promises, “no one will snatch them out of my hand!”
Hang in there people!
God is Glad to be with us!
I’m praying for us all!
