Grace Hope Perseverance

Lessons from an amusement park

It’s coming. If it hasn’t happened yet, it will soon. It happens every Christmas season. You’ve shopped and wrapped and decorated and baked. You’ve been holly jolly and rocked around the Christmas tree until your head is spinning. You’ve made every effort to capture the spirit of the season and be present for every sweet moment.

But then it happens. Perhaps it’s a condescending relative, a demanding child, a broken appliance, or just one more thing added to your to-do list at the last minute that sets you over the edge. Or maybe it’s been a hard year, and you’re struggling to find the joy everyone else seems to have found. 

But usually, there’s that moment or collection of moments that have you declaring that you are done with the merriment. You’ve had enough. I learned two things yesterday that may help us cope with these moments, and I gleaned these life lessons from, of all places, an amusement park.

My dear brother takes our whole family to Christmas Town every year, and we have made the sweetest memories there. Yesterday was our day to go, and the forecast was full of rain. But since the tickets were bought and we had braved the rain in years past, we packed up and forged ahead through the downpours. 

So there we were, at the ticket entrance, bundled up in our coats, hats, scarves, gloves, and then covered completely by rain ponchos over our whole ensembles. As you might imagine, it is hard to hear and to see when you’re wearing hoods and hats, and add to that the pouring rain dripping loudly off of every surface.

This is where I found myself as I went through the line. I was trying to follow my family, to go where everyone else was going, to follow the rules. Yet a staff member of Busch Gardens was telling me to go left. First of all, she was pointing right while saying left, so I continued moving forward to the right. Second of all, going left didn’t seem to be an option. No one else was going that way at all. (It didn’t seem to lead anywhere.)

Well, this lady was very unhappy with me and let me know it. “What is wrong with you? Left! I said left! Don’t you even know your directions?” she yelled. (I could barely hear her or see her out of my peripheral vision because of my raincoat hood and poncho hood, but I could tell she despised me at that moment.)

I share this because it was one moment out of the whole day. Yes, I didn’t follow her directions. Yes, I regret that. But also, I had my reasons:  she was unclear, and I was discombobulated from the rain and rain gear. But she was so mean to me, and one doesn’t expect to be treated that way at an amusement park where the happy music is playing and the friendly lights are twinkling.

It was one moment, yet throughout the day and even into the night, this memory would creep in, this nagging reminder of how cruel her words were and how they made me feel. For those of us who tend toward the sensitive side of life, this happens often. And it can easily derail our plans for enjoying life events. So I determined at one point that I wasn’t going to dwell on this one ugly moment and let it ruin my whole day. I was going to stand up to that little voice in my head that was encouraging me to continue to ruminate on this one moment, this one lady, this one comment. Instead, I was going to focus on all of the good things that I saw and experienced that day. 

This isn’t a new idea. Philippians 4:8 tells us to do this:  Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Yet when we’re hurt by something or someone, we feel like we should think on that ugliness, turn it over and over in our minds until we can make peace with it. I’m all for processing feelings and events in a healthy way, but at some point, it’s no longer healthy to dwell on negative things. People will be mean to us. But we can choose to focus on the good.

So we walked on, through the park, the rain pouring as we trudged through the cheery music and festive lights, noting that some of the rides were closed, as well as some of the shows. Those in our party who wanted to ride rides rode a few in the rain as the rest of us took shelter while we waited for them. Soon enough, we were laughing at the funny stories they had to tell as they exited the rides and chatting like it wasn’t even raining on our parade. 

Before we knew it, the rain subsided. We threw off our ponchos and folded up our umbrellas. And we continued enjoying the day, this time with clear peripheral vision and better hearing. Pretty soon, the rain was forgotten, and we rode rides, perused the cute Christmas shops, and ate our fill of yummy amusement park food. 

We had our usual misadventures, such as my sister almost getting taken out by an older lady wielding two gigantic umbrellas. Don’t worry! She lived to tell the tale. And we all shared such good laughter over that and other funny experiences.

Which brings me to the second lesson of the day:  When the rain is pressing down, keep pressing forward. When the rain lifts (as it always does), your enjoyment will be increased all the more for the struggle it took to get there.

I’m not calling the small inconveniences we encountered at Christmas Town “suffering,” but I am saying that we can find a parallel between them and the true sufferings in life and the importance of perseverance. And how very, very much the gray days leave us longing for hope. But the good news is that we have reason to hope!

Romans 5:3-5 tell us:  Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Romans 8:24-26 addresses hope also:  For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

And one more word about hope, again from Romans, this time 12:12:  Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

The truth is that in some seasons of our lives, hope seems far away. We have to muster up strength and courage to face even the day-to-day tasks. But then we get those glimmers of it – that blessed hope, that knowledge that what we’re currently going through will not last forever – and it’s priceless. 

For me, it was after the rain, when I was walking through the different countries represented at Busch Gardens, when I emerged from one and saw a sign that said “Countdown to Christmas:  3 days!” And for one precious moment, I was transported back to that time in my life where I was a child and I felt like Christmas would never come. And I remembered the thrill of seeing such a sign that not only was Christmas coming, but it would be here in 3 days. 

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices. For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

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