The Ride

Imagine your driving in an old convertible car. The top and windows are rolled down and there is a trail of dust the car is kicking up behind you going back as far as you can see into the distance. Much like the scene from Thelma and Louise! They are driving down the dirt road heading for the edge of the cliff, only it’s you driving and everyone you love is in the car with you. The accelerator is stuck wide open and the steering wheel is locked into position. You are numb from the fear of the impending disaster and even though everything is happening at tremendous speed, it all seems to happen in slow motion. It’s as though years have passed while with each second you watch the car consume the road in front of you drawing you ever closer.

As you look through the windshield, instead of seeing a big expanse of mountains and sky you see a wall of blackness where the cliff should be… and nothing beyond it. You watch as the road passes by your open window. The wind blows in your hair and cascades across your face, drying the tears that stream from your eyes. It all seems so surreal! In slow motion you watch as the wall of blackness approaches. You sit motionless as the hood of the car disappears into the blackness. Inch by inch the blackness creeps up the hood closer to the windshield. You watch as the road blurs by your open window, expecting to see the edge of the cliff and waiting to feel the front of the car begin to plummet into the blackness. Your wife and children stare at you in disbelief as you bow your head to the steering wheel in utter failure, unable to prevent any of what is happening…

But nothing happens.

For every inch the car moves forward the blackness recedes an inch. And despite the dizzying speed, the edge of darkness remains just inches from the windshield. You sit powerless to change anything and completely at the mercy of who ever or whatever pilots the vehicle. Your wife and children, time, space, EVERYTHING seems frozen in that moment. But nothing is frozen at all. The car is careening wildly as it rolls over rocks and gullies. You watch as debris kicked up by the front tires fly’s into the air and passes under the car behind you. The image of what lies in front of you… your next year, your tomorrow… your next moment, can only be viewed as it passes by you. Only the one driving the car knows where you are headed and when the trip will end.

If this whole experience were a carnival ride, you would be experiencing the complete thrill and exhilaration the maker of the ride intended you to have, because you placed your faith and trust that what he has built will bring you safely to the conclusion of the ride.

So how is it for you?