I have lots of memories of that fair.
I think I was about 9 when my dad entered the macramé contest and won a blue ribbon for his work on a macramé hanging table. We got to view the microwave demonstration in the expo building. How to pop corn in a brown paper bag in the new, high tech, microwave. It was a very popular booth and one I bragged about at school the next day. It was nineteen seventy something.
I remember being at this same fair as a teen, without a boyfriend, the weekend before heart day and having no-one to ride the rides with. I was so sad. :( I did find a friend to ride with, eat funnel cake with, be silly with and daydream of Jon Bon Jovi. :) It was nineteen eighty something.
I remember visiting my parents, home from college, when the fair came to town. I recall walking around as a "grown up" thinking it seemed dirtier than I remembered. It also seemed louder and brighter and not as much fun. A bit smaller than I recall. The prices were outrageous, too. When did it get so expensive to go to the fair? We left in a small red compact car, squished like sardines, reminiscing of what rides made which ones sick. I was 19 or 20, I could ride anything. It was nineteen ninety something.
Fast forward to the year two thousand and ten. I am back in Okeechobee, not exactly my plan, working in the schools in exceptional education. It was free fair day for the special needs population in the town and most of my Occupational Therapy students would be there. I went last year and it was so much fun. I decided to make another go of it.
Bumper cars, the giant slide with the burlap sack, the small rides; I was happy to take my students on these rides. It was fun and enjoyable to watch the kids laugh and play. They were all so excited. I just wanted to share in the experience with them. It was all good, too, until the older kids begged me to go on the "Ring of Fire." I must have experienced a type of amnesia regarding my age and the fact that spinning rides make me sick. This was a ride that was just a circle. That's it. You are strapped into a metal cart and you just ride around in a circle with occasional periods of dangling upside down.
I was a bit queasy after getting off the ride, but I didn't throw up and I could still walk in a straight line. I thought I was invincible, however, and begged the operator of the next metal torture machine to let us ride. I was being conned but didn't know it. One of the oldest tricks in the book. He said the ride was closed, but he had just let 20 people off after having it "open". So, I begged, pleaded, cajoled and then asked "pretty please with a cherry on top." Of, course; it was never really closed, which is why he let us ride. It was just the psychology of it all that hooked me.
Once seated in the ride, with the shiny metal bars locked, my euphoria faded fast. Even with my brave facade diminishing, it became non-existent when the ride operator said "I'm going to make you puke." He succeeded, too. Approximately, 15 minutes following the extreme carnival ride with the mean fair ride operator, I threw up.
As I lay in my warm car, head spinning and my stomach swirling, I thought about how self induced my queasiness had been. I walked onto the ride, and even begged to ride, even after I had been told no. I signed up for this one, quite voluntarily, too. I couldn't help but think of the similarity to real life. How many times do we willingly walk into a self imposed situation, we have been told no, just to ignore and keep pursuing it? On the other end we are reeling from the negative effects and we act dazed and confused, like, what happened? How did I end up here?
When I was on that carnival ride from you know where, all I could think about was how to make it stop. I felt trapped, helpless, out of control and sick. I wanted to get off, but I was not the one running this show. I couldn't get off. I was strapped in, spinning in circles, being controlled and manipulated like a puppet. No amount of begging, screaming or closing my eyes worked. I did all three.
I did lots of things.
It's like sin, that carnival ride.
It is shiny and exciting. The music is playing, you are with your friends, you want to be part of the fun. It looks like so much fun. The bright lights, the laughter, the smell, it entices all the senses. Everyone wants to go to the fair.
It's not what it looks like, however.
Sin does that.
It looks shiny and exciting. The music is playing, you are with your friends, you want to be part of fun. Drinking looks like so much fun. It looks cool to hold a Corona in your hand. You get an adrenaline rush when you score an alcoholic beverage when you are underage. It's cool to pop the top with your key chain with that bottle opener on it. It entices the senses. Everyone wants to loosen up with a little alcohol and be the life of the party.
It looks shiny and exciting. The music is playing on your I-pod, you want to be with a girl, you want to be part of the fun. Pre-marital sex looks like so much fun. It looks cool on the internet, very pleasing to the eye. You get an adrenaline rush when you score that real gal or when you see it live on the net. It feels so good. It entices the senses. Everyone wants to say they have tasted "love"...
It looks shiny and exciting. The music is playing, you are with your friends, you want to calm down and feel a little buzz, everyone says it works. It's a plant, natural and all. Pot looks like the answer to your problems. It looks cool to have a joint. Doesn't everyone laugh at Spikoli on "Fast Times at Ridgmont High?" What about Cheech and Chong, they are hilarious?! It feels good. It entices the senses. Everyone wants to just be happy man.
It's like that carnival ride.
Until...
You are up in the air, strapped in, going around and around, high in the air, unable to escape. This ride is making you feel things you didn't want to feel. This ride is making you do things you didn't want to do. This ride is making you say things you didn't want to say. This ride is making you sick; you didn't want to get sick.
When I was on that ride going in circles and it would rotate around so fast I could barely hang on and my stomach felt like it was coming up my throat...it wasn't exciting.
When I was on that ride and it would just stop at the very top and you could see the whole fair, what everyone was doing. I wanted to be down there on the ground with them but I couldn't get down...it wasn't shiny.
When I was on that ride and it would slow down like it was over and you could get off, it would speed up and change the direction it was spinning. I didn't want to change the direction I was spinning, I wanted to get off...it wasn't exciting.
When I was on that ride and it wouldn't stop I tried everything. I screamed so loud and so much my voice became hoarse. I held onto the metal bars so tight that my entire body ached. I closed my eyes, I covered my eyes with my hands, I tried to breathe but couldn't. Nothing was working. The ride would not stop so I could get off. In fact, the more I screamed and cried out, the faster it seemed to go...it wasn't shiny.
Okay, I think you must get the analogy by now. Sin and the carnival ride are similar in the way they seem shiny and exciting initially, but the look is deceiving and the trap is real and you are powerless and out of control.
There is help. There is an answer. It worked for me on the carnival ride and it can work for you on the ride sin takes you on.
The answer is Jesus. Just cry out to Him. He will answer.
That's what I did that cold, blustery day in February. High up in the air, spinning faster, trapped and miserable. I, literally, started praying out loud and said, "Lord, please, please, help me off this ride. Please make it stop. I want to get off. Please help me, Lord. Please, God, please Lord, make this ride stop." I just cried out to the Lord to make it stop.
It did. It stopped. The ride slowed down and instead of changing direction, it came to a complete halt and the metal bars raised and I was free to stand up and walk off. I could get off!
One might think I leaped out of that seat like Tigger. Nope. I was exhausted from my futile efforts and nauseous from the spinning. I just laid my head to the side and took a deep breath. The way of escape had materialized, but now I had to stand up and walk off. The door was open; it was up to me to take action.
It took me about 30 seconds, but I did stand, with help, and then walked off the ride. Never to look back!
The walk from the carnival ride to my car was not straight or easy. The drive from the fair back to work was not easy. When I parked my car at work, the motion of the car had intensified my queasiness and it was all I could do to open the car door fast enough where I could hurl!
I missed the rest of my work day. I had to lie in my car for an hour. Any movement made me dizzy. It took a full 4 hours for my stomach and head to feel normal. Driving through the carpool line was very uncomfortable and difficult that day. Moving, period was difficult until the motion sickness went away.
The Lord provides the answer to all our problems. Any sin we get involved in has a way of escape.
"No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God [is] faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear [it]."
I Corinthians 10:13
We do, and then have a responsibility to stand up and walk off.
We also have to suffer the consequences of the sin.
There may be a loss of driving privileges with drinking. There may be loss of reputation because of your actions with drinking. There may be an addiction to break with drinking. There may be a death with drinking.
There may be an unwanted pregnancy with pre-marital sex. There may be a loss of reputation or relationship with pre-marital sex. There may be an STD that causes infertility (Chlamydia), chronic disease (herpes) or death (HIV) with pre-marital sex. There may be a lifetime addiction harder to kick than a cocaine habit (pornography) that leads to sex addiction, prostitution, debt, domestic violence and the death of body, mind and spirit. 100% of the people on death row, 100%, have a full blown addiction to pornography. There may be death with pre-marital sex.
There may be jail time with pot. There may be loss of intelligence due to the holes left in your brain with pot. There may be loss of reputation and relationship with pot. There may be loss of employment with pot. There may be death (cancer) with pot.
My carnival ride was pretty harmless. Scary, queasy, uncomfortable, embarrassing and a half day of lost wages. I walked away with a funny story and good material for my blog. Are you going to be able to say that about the sin you are dabbling in? Jesus made a way of escape (I Corinthians 10:13), but will you be able to walk away and stand, how devastating will the consequences be? Will you walk down the aisle with your best friend in June, or will you be running to the ER and laying flowers on a casket? Will you be wearing white at your wedding or putting on something black to attend a funeral?
A carnival ride is funny.
A ride that sin takes you on is not funny.
