I'm Disobedient

This weekend I realized: I'm disobedient.

For the first time in over 3 years, I went to Cedar Point, "The Best Amusement Park in the World". While there, I rode one of my favorite rides: Top Thrill Dragster.

Upon entering the line, I am met with this sign:

Then when you get into the car, this is what you see on the back of every seat:

And then, when you're at the start line you see this:

On top of all that, an announcer is using every opportunity to enumerate these simple rules. So, one has to believe that if you hear and see the rules this many times...they mean it.

But, on roller coasters, I LOVE to have my hands up. I can hear. I can read. But still, I disobeyed. I put my hands up, and then TTD took a turn, or twisted, or did something at "break neck" speeds, and my arms were up so I wasn't braced, and my upper body was just slammed down. Ribs bruised. It was the cost of my disobedience.

The big question is: why did I do it? To enhance the experience.

Being shot up 420 feet at 120mph is simply not enough. Clearly, I have to do something to enhance my experience. The something that I do is disobedience. And it actually took away from my experience. What I didn't realize, but I do now, is that the ride is built for my enjoyment and the safety parameters are set to ensure that I receive optimal enjoyment of the ride.


It's the same thing in your walk with Christ. We're living life with our hands up, trying to enhance the experience. We read about "it" in our quiet time, we get held accountable about "it" in our small group, and we hear "it" preached as if it was meant just for us on Sunday mornings at service, and yet...we do our own thing, because we want our life set on optimal enjoyment. I call it "it" because there is variation among us. Everyone has their own life optimization plan that is somewhat outside of the parameters. Whether you're adding sexual immorality to your life optimization plan, if the love of money/power is part of your optimization plan, or if you just have a mentally-satisfying-but-totally-inappropriate thought life that is part of your optimization plan...believe it's taking away from your experience.

Why/How? Because the ride is built for your enjoyment and the safety parameters are set to ensure that you receive optimal enjoyment of the ride:

"... I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." John 10:10

Why would Jesus come to give you a full life, if it's really not a full life? This is of course rhetorical. Your life is not full, because you seek to fill it yourself. We're not looking for fulfillment in Christ, because we don't always believe that total fulfillment can be found there. And so while we're busy trying to enhance the experience with disobedience, we find ourselves less and less fulfilled, sometimes even hurt. Ribs bruised. The cost of disobedience. 

“Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” Luke 11:28

Obedience leads to happy contentment. Why do we think other roads lead there? Food for thought.