The Rail

Have you ever gone to an amusement park where the rides were straight and flat?  Or even at a constant angle slightly up?  Where turns were gently pitched and announced well in advance?  If you ever have, I’m sure you don’t remember it except to say to yourself not to go back.  But what is the real ‘joy’ of a ‘death defying’ ride like El Toro or Rolling Thunder?  I’ll tell you what I think it is – it’s not in the car design, or the steep, heart pounding climbs, or even the rushing, precipitous drop that leaves half of your stomach at the top of the hill.  I think the joy is in the rail – throughout the whole ride you somehow always know that the rail is there.  Faith is in the rail.  God is in the rail.  There are moments in your life when you are on top of the world, when you and others like you participate in being the rail.  There are moments when you are experiencing that precipitous drop, and it’s harder to see in ‘real’ life but the rail is there.  What would this life be like if it were nothing but the slow ‘tick’, ‘tick’, ‘tick’ to the top of a never-ending hill?  When life seems hardest, and the ride too fast, think of that visual picture – know, the way you know on one of your favorite rides, God is in the rail.