how far we've come

The phrase keeps hitting me. It's from this song:



It's like a clock ticking the minutes. An alarm jolting you from peaceful slumber. The big hand tilts forward and you realize that Change is coming again - whether you like it or not.

I really don't prefer change. I like staying in my own little climate-controlled bubble and moving around in a normal routine. God, on the other hand, likes to pop my bubble and toss my routine to the winds. I end up on a roller coaster.

Yesterday I went to Cedar Point with a huge group of my friends and it was {AWESOME} There were lots of not-so-nice parts...Long lines, sweating to death because Ohio decided to be hot and muggy, feeling incomplete, water being too often out of reach, walking in wet clothes, aching feet...you get the idea. But over all, it was really great.

We did the same thing last year.

This year was quite different.

But me, being me, kept flash-backing to last year. It wasn't that I wanted to go back. I was just...very unsatisfied. (It's not a word but I like it.) I always want things to be different than they are. I'm never quite happy to be standing in my own shoes -- or at least not today. I keep forgetting that today is all I have.

Let's see how far we've come.

It's been one intensely crazy ride. I have changed and grown so much! (I feel like that most of the time. Sometimes I wonder if I'm going rather backwards, though ;p)

I don't know where I'm going with this. I think...I think I'm trying to say that change is incredibly good even if it hurts. ESPECIALLY if it hurts. As long as you choose to ride through it to the end. No bailing at the last second. No chickening out while you wait in line. Just jump in the roller coaster, strap on your seat belt, and throw both hands in the hand. And scream.

It's scary. Heck, it's TERRIFYING. So why is it that when it's over we're usually grinning from ear to ear shouting, "Let's do that again!"?

Granted, there are those rides that make us sick to our stomachs, scare us to death, scar us beyond reckoning...That's where God comes in. That's where healing and faith have to do their work. We still can't jump out before we've started. Life won't let us. God won't let us. And today, I'm glad that this is true.