Ups And Downs

I get the phrase "walking with the Lord" but I think for my own life at time I won't use that one. I think I'll go with "riding Space Mountain with the Lord." That seems more appropriate. You know where the ride ultimately ends, but to get there its a crazy ride. Sometimes you can see where you're going, but most of the time you can't. And there are a lot of ups and downs!

It's those ups and downs that are on my mind today. Sometimes I get into this mode where I'm just riding a high where nothing is going wrong and nothing can get me down. The ride just goes up and up and up and I somehow think "hey man, I've got eternal life through Jesus Christ, NOTHING can ruin this mood!"

I'm an idiot.

Even on a day that's been totally wrapped up in the Lord, things can, and do, go awry. There's been times when it took just an instance for a few darts from the devil to get through and cause me to crash down. And then stupidly I think "What's going on here? God, I thought I was your kid! What happened here?!"

Ditto the idiot comment.

Those ups and downs are really more superficial emotions. The calm delight inside that comes from knowing and growing closer to my Father and my Savior is still there on both kinds of days. During the down times I might not pay attention to it enough, but as soon as I've passed through an emotional valley and my senses are coming back to me, I feel that delight in the Lord restoring me from the inside out.

It seems to be useful to distinguish between the way we feel in the core of our being, which gets transformed by Christ when we come to him, and the shallow easy-come-easy-go emotional roller coaster ride that we experience day to day. I think when we're in Christ and have a solid handle on the former, the latter shouldn't affect us so much!

As God has been showing this to me, it became clear also that he has used both the ups and downs to work in my life. Logically during the highest highs I've been used for the benefit of others while during the lowest lows I've been shown areas in my life in need of improvement.

Thanks, Dad, for an awesome ride!

Grace and Peace