Admit it, life is sometimes like a roller coaster. One minute you are slowly chugging up the hill and then the next minute you are plummeting down the other side at breakneck speed with the g-forces pushing you into your seat. Then, suddenly, the ride hits a bump in the track, and you are lifted out of your seat and you feel as if you are about to be launched into the air. And then the ride comes to a screeching halt. You get off dazed and dizzy only to get in line once again. Sound familiar?

The fastest wooden roller coaster in the world is Lightning Rod, located at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, which hits speeds of 73 mph. Kings Island’s Son of Beast held the previous record at 78 mph, however after several major incidences, it was demolished in 2012. (We rode this coaster soon after it opened in 2000 and it was a truly unforgettable two minutes and twenty seconds.) Those speeds pale in comparison to the fastest steel roaster coaster, Formula Rossa, located at Ferrari World in Dubai, which reaches a maximum speed of 149 mph. Due to its extreme speed, riders are required to wear goggles.

Six Flags America (New Jersey) houses both Goliath, which has the steepest (85 degrees) and largest vertical (180 feet) drop for wooden coasters, and Kingda Ka, which while “only” reaching a maximum speed of 128 mph, has a mind boggling vertical drop of 418 feet, the longest drop for any roller coaster in the world!   

Did you know that when a roller coaster is speeding up, the force you feel is the seat pushing your body forward but because of the body’s inertia, you feel a force in front of you which pushes you into the seat? And then as the coaster reaches the top of a hill, inertia lifts you up out of the seat while the coaster car begins to descend, creating that moment of “air time.”

While we tend to be happy or sad, enthusiastic or dispirited, hopeful or discouraged, energized or tired, based upon whether the roller coaster of life is traveling up the hill, down the hill, or around a turn, one thing remains the same through it all – God is a good and faithful and loving God, worthy of our unending praise. Psalm 107:1 reads like this, “Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his lovingkindess [goodness] is everlasting.”

And when David pretended to be insane in order to get out from under Saul’s intentions to murder him, here is what he wrote after being allowed to flee, found in Psalm 34:1, “I will bless the LORD at all times, his praise will continually be in my mouth.”

[Psalm 34 is an acrostic praise psalm, meaning that each new verse starts with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which consists of 22 letters, all consonants. 22 also represents the number of books in the earliest Jewish canon. The Hebrew Bible – Torah (Teaching), Nevi’im (Prophets), Ketuvim (Writings) – consists of 24 books. Today, the Protestant Old Testament has 39 books. Confused? Don’t be. Today’s canon separates books that were originally combined – such as, the minor prophets were considered one book and Kings, Samuel, Chronicles were each one book not two as in today’s OT. And to muddy the water more, the Catholic Old Testament has an additional 7 deuterocanonical books not included in the Protestant version.]

So, today, whether you are chugging up the hill or speeding down the hill, whipping around a turn, being pushed into your seat or lifted out of your seat, take time to praise and worship God! There is a saying that goes like this… In the happy moments praise God, in the difficult moments seek God, in the quiet moments trust God, in the painful moments trust God, in every moment thank God. 

I think you will agree that life in the 21^st-century is stressful. Hardly a day goes by where we don’t feel the weight of the world on our shoulders for some reason or another. Some of the major causes of stress can be biological, environmental, external, financial, relational, and yes even, imaginary (all those “what ifs”). If enough, or certain types of, stressors press in on us, physical, psychological, or emotional conditions often sometimes occur. Think of that headache you got after a very challenging and stressful day at work or school.  

After another long and tiring day, we all have ways to unload and unwind. For some it is exercising at the gym or heading out on a good five-mile run. For others it might be a glass of wine and a good book while soaking in the bathtub. Or for you, maybe walking on the beach, feeling the ocean’s water lap at your feet, works wonders. I have pig stress ball that I keep at my desk. There are other times when some type of medication is needed to manage or alleviate the stress or pain.  

Sometimes the best stress reliever is to simply sit quietly and meditate, trying to relax and empty or re-focus your mind. Today I want to look at another kind of meditation, one that is not engaged in to “empty” us, but rather to “fill” us. When you read the Bible you should meditate upon the words you’ve just read, asking God to transform your mind and heart through His Word, and in the process He is “filling” you with more of Him, and thus, that means less of you.

To meditate is “to muse.” (I purposely named my blog Deep Water Musings.) The words music and muse are related, both originating from the same root word. Music often goes deep, soothing your soul. To muse, to meditate, does the same thing, penetrating deep into your soul, helping to calm and center your spirit.

The first five verses of Psalm 103 give us a good model for working God’s Word into our own hearts and minds. In verse 1, David speaks directly to his own heart when he says, “Praise the LORD, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.” Here David is speaking directly to himself through inward dialogue.

In verse 2, we again see David speaking to himself, reminding his own heart of God’s goodness. We read, “Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits.”

And then in verses 3-5, he begins to list all the ways that God is good to us, each and every human being on the planet.

v.3 – who forgives all your sins, and heals all your diseases,

v.4 – who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,

v.5 – who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

The psalm goes on to list more of the attributes and activities of God, all for the benefit of His children. I encourage you to read Psalm 103 in its entirety. 

Most everything we do to manage stress, while often effective, is usually only temporary, whereas there really is no better permanent and lasting stress reliever, not a one, than faith in God. So, make it a priority to spend time every day meditating upon God’s Word, helping you enter into His presence, the best stress reliever on the market!

Imagine for a minute that you are running for your life with your enemy chasing you (and I am talking “big” enemy!) and when you look up ahead for an escape route all you see are mountains that seem as tall as Mount Everest and a body of water that looks to be very deep and very wide. At that moment fear sets in as you have nowhere to turn. Ever have one of those moments? Maybe you are in one right now. Whatever it is, from your vantage point it is just too big to handle. In those moments where do you turn for help?

Be honest, there are just some things you face that seem too big to handle. The mountain looks too high to climb. The river looks more like an ocean than it does river. The hole is simply too big to climb out of. All you see around you are walls closing in on you. There just seems to be no way out.

“But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.” Ex 14:29

You probably know the story of the parting of the Red Sea found in Exodus 13:17-14:31. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, agreed to let the Hebrew people go as Moses had asked. Moses is leading the people of Israel out of slavery into the land of Canaan. After the Hebrews left Egypt, Pharaoh changed his mind and was angry that he had lost his slave laborers, so he ordered his army to chase after the Israelites in their chariots. Soon the army caught up to them and the Israelites were trapped in by the mountains on both sides and the Red Sea that was in front of them. As Pharaoh’s army got closer the Hebrew people were terrified and angry – “It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert” (13:12).

When the pressure was on, the Israelites had forgotten all that God had done for them in the past. Sound familiar? But God was faithful despite the lack of faith of the people. God told Moses to “raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground” (13:16).The river turned into dry land and the Israelites safely crossed it. Then God told Moses to “stretch out your hand over the seas so the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen” (13:26). The waters rolled back in, killing all the soldiers and their horses.

So, what did the Israelites think of what had just happened? At the end of this story we read this – “And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant” (14:31).

[Fear of the Lord is not a “scared” fear but a “positive” fear; one of reverence and respect, not wanting to disappoint God, a unique mix of awe and trembling that we feel in His presence.]

What God did for the Israelites He will do for you today! So, in your moment of fear, will you trust God to protect you? Will you trust God to turn the raging sea into dry land so you can safely pass through?

I will end with this verse from Psalm 66:6 – “He turned the sea into dry land, they passed through the waters on foot – come, let us rejoice in him.”