Tower of Terror

I’m slightly ashamed to admit this, but roller coasters freak me out! I’ve been to Six Flags one time and I will never go again….(seriously, I’m never going again, so don’t ask). I road one roller coaster when I was there in the 6th grade (I’m too ashamed to admit which one it was) and that was enough…for life.

A few years ago, my family went down to Orlando, Fl to see my sister run in a marathon. I don’t care what you go to Orlando for, you can’t go there and not visit Disney World or one of the other theme parks. So my family decided that we would go to Disney’s MGM studios. I must say, going to MGM was a good choice. In fact, we made a lot of good choices that day: we ate great food, saw some awesome shows, and played “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” My family and I had a pretty good day until that evening when my dad and I decided that we would go ride the Tower of Terror. I’m not really sure what we were thinking when we made this decision, maybe being in the Florida sun all day made us lose all sense of good judgment…I don’t know. Either way, we did it.

In case you don’t know what the Tower of Terror is, I’ve provided a picture with its website’s official description below:

“Guests embark upon an eerie journey through a deserted Hollywood Hotel where they visit the lobby, the library, and the boiler room. The adventure culminates with a 13-story drop in a runaway 1917 caged service elevator in which guests take a death-defying, high-speed plunge.”

Sounds pretty exciting right? Anyways, there’s one thing they don’t tell you. When the elevator makes its initial drop, they take a picture of everyone’s reactions and they put it on a big tv screen out front for everyone and their mother to see. To make a long story short, in the picture I am leaning over onto my dad grabbing hold of his arm and screaming like a stinkin’ woman (no offense ladies, I’m just trying to get a point across here)….quite possibly the most embarrassing moment of my life.

(Dad if you happen to read this post, save the trash talk)

Anyway, it’s in the past so I can laugh about it now. When the elevator dropped, I guess my initial reaction was to grab on to something for dear life…and that something happened to be my dad.

This instance has raised some good thoughts and questions though in my life. What do I grab onto when I’m afraid? Most men will tell you they are afraid of nothing…NOT TRUE. Did you know that Moses was afraid to lead the Israelites? Did you know that Joshua was scared when God called on him? Saul was so scared when he was called to be king, he ran away and tried to hide in a bunch of bags. David feared Saul and ran away. Hezekiah feared the King of Assyria. And Jonah was afraid of the wicked people of Nineveh. This list could go on and on with famous men of the Bible, who all had fears.

So what do we grab onto when we’re afraid? What about when unexpected things happen, like a family member dies, you find out you have cancer, your car gets broken into, you don’t get the scholarship you were planning on getting, your girlfriend or boyfriend breaks up with you? What’s your initial reaction then? What do you find yourself grabbing for?

There’s two different reactions that we see in the men listed above. They either run away from God or they run too God and grab on to His strength (Exod. 4:1-18; Joshua 1:1-10; 1 Samuel 10:20-24; 23:15-18; 2 Kings 19:1-19; Jonah 1:1-3). Clearly from these examples given in scripture, there is only one thing we can do because there is only one thing we were created to do….grab onto God! And ironically, when we grab onto God, our fears begin to subside and the unexpected things become little-bitty puddles on the sidewalk that we simply step over and keep walking by.

(All that being said, I’m still never getting on a roller coaster again!)

~ by Austin W. on July 18, 2008.