Roller Coaster Relationship

In my youth I was always frustrated that my relationship with God would go up and down. Sometimes we’d be tight. I’d talk to Him day and night. Then there were times where I’d go weeks and months and not really remember Him at all. Still into my adulthood I’d have the same problem, not walking quite so far away, but still choosing to walk my own path instead of His.

I’d hoped that someday I could figure out how to have a steady, level relationship with God, something that didn’t fluctuate so easily. The lack of the great highs and lows was my goal. But I’ve realized that those mountains and valleys are always going to be there in life. “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.” Ecc 3:1-8.

Life is full of ups and downs and there isn’t really anything anyone can do about it. My daughter has been fighting cancer since she was eighteen months old. She has relapsed three times now in the last six years. But six years, wow, six wonderful years of pretty much normal life of seeing her turn from a baby to a young lady with a mind and heart of her own. A relationship of faith in a God bigger than this circumstance has kept me going. That relationship doesn’t have to vacilate with the valleys and peaks of life.

But I don’t want my relationship with God to be just steady and level. No, I want it to grow and grow. The relationship should be on an upward curve despite the roller coaster of life. The seasons bring change, change that I need in my life to bring that relationship to a new, higher level.

God uses those natural seasons in my life to stretch and grow me. The scarier they are, the more I need Him. So if accept the roller coaster of life, I know I can make it through knowing there is a magnificent, omnicient Passenger along for the ride and He’s taking me to even better places in the long run.