Feet Firmly Planted

Written by Tony Stith
New Horizons Community Fellowship
My wife and I took our two kids and a couple of their friends to Valley Fair, Minnesota's biggest amusement park, this week. I don't know why they call them amusement parks. In my mind, there's nothing in the least amusing about them. They should more accurately be labeled panic parks, terror parks, check your brains at the door parks...Something more befitting the sensations these parks are designed to provoke.

You probably have surmised thus far that I'm not a big fan of rides. I just don't think God intended for man to find creative ways to scare the pajeebers out of ourselves. That, and a few other reasons, are why I staged a little passive resistance this week when we went to visit the local "death" park. Despite my teenage son and his friends best efforts to get me strapped into rides with therapeutic names such as the "Wild Thing", the "Steele Venom" or the "Power Tower" I resolutely determined to keep both of my feet firmly planted on the ground and the contents of my stomach where they belonged...in my stomach.

As I stood at the base of these towering torture chambers watching the family I loved being tossed about mercilessly like stuffed pillows in a pillow fight and congratulating myself for making the wise decision to stay on the ground, I couldn't help but wax spiritually philosophical.

In the realm of the spiritual there are never ending amounts of Christian amusements and diversions to be had. Their flashing neon lights catch our attention, beckoning us to strap ourselves in and let them take us on twisting, turning, thrilling rides to places we've never been before. This ride over here promises to rocket us into the Purpose Driven Life. That ride over there promises to help us Find Your Best Life Now and yet another claims to be able to shoot us to new heights of Possibility Thinking. Christians in droves strap themselves into these and other spiritual diversions. They are emotionally tossed and turned, rocketed back and forth until the ride ends, the excitement fades, and they come out the exit somewhat dizzy and unstable, finding it difficult to walk again on solid ground.

2 Tim 4:3 - 4 tells us... "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables."

Eph 4:14 instructs us to "...no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine..."

God didn't intend for His people to be twisted and turned and swept away by every wind of doctrine....some new interpretation here or unique three step plan of fulfillment there. He wants us to keep both of our feet firmly planted on the bedrock of his Word. That is where we find life. That is where we find fulfillment. And ultimately, that is the most thrilling and rewarding ride of all.

I think our family has had it's fill of amusement parks for this summer at least. Who knows, maybe next summer my son will finally succeed in getting me strapped into one of those death contraptions. It's not likely, but I know he'll keep trying. I'm pretty adamant about keeping my feet planted firmly on terra firma. I'm determined to keep my spiritual feet there as well.

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"I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate Your ways. I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word." Psalms 119:15 - 16