Roller Coaster Living

Confession: Laura likes roller coasters more than I do. I enjoy them, but would rather do something else crazy, and honestly, I try to act like I'm enjoying the ride a whole lot more than I actually am.

Confession: I've lived the roller coaster life and don't enjoy that either. And unfortunately, so have you. And we don't enjoy watching other people live this way- roller coaster attitude, roller coaster marriages, and a roller coaster spiritual life.

You don't enjoy it either, even when you're life is swirling around on the track. Here's what roller coaster living sounds like:

• in love with their spouse one day, and ready to kill each other the next.
• happy about their weekend, then miserable on Monday afternoon.
• use words to bless, and then using such colorful language that you'd make a sailor blush, and mothers are plugging their kids' ears.
• speak of godly things in one conversation, and then tell a dirty joke.

This is partly the human condition. We battle between feeding our spirit and our flesh. We battle, as Christians, with being instantaneously made "perfect" in Christ's righteousness at the moment of salvation, and yet we are being "perfected" through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.

That part I completely understand. But I find the roller coaster life exhausting and unacceptable! Maturity, especially in the Christian life, means that we are becoming more consistent and stable. My directive, GROW UP! If you're loving your spouse one moment, and mistreating them the next- STOP IT! If you're words bless and curse, ask God to transform your vocabulary. If you're spiritual life looks more like this guy attached to the roller coaster track than a mountain path, SEEK GOD!

The apostle James challenges us in James 3:4-18 to be wise with "wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere."

Hope this serves as a word of encouragement rather than correction. I feel the same tension and roller coaster ride. I'm just prayerfully submitting myself in humility before God to be transformed and unstrap from the tracks of my sin-nature.