On a recent trip to an amusement park, I got stuck riding something I didn't want to because Little Wyatt was determined to ride it, and I was the only older person left to accompany him.  I had already ridden it once with him and the rest of the family, and once was enough.  The "Tower of Terror", as it is known, takes you and 29 others about 10 stories high and then proceeds to drop you suddenly, only to shoot you back up, and then drop you again, and then up again, and so on  - at all light speed.  By the time your stomach catches up with the rest of your body, it reminds you of a great aunt you met at a family reunion - somebody you knew once upon a time and in theory are somehow related to.

Barely reaching the minimum height requirement, Wyatt was 1/2 as tall as all the other riders though he was twice as eager - or way more than that in my case.  He had already ridden it four times since our initial family ride together, and each time he got off he wanted to do it again, declaring it to be his favorite ride.  I thankfully was spared from these trips, but when the last chance to ride rolled around, brothers and sisters were nowhere in sight so it was my duty to tag along.  Besides, he had just had to sit through “Beauty and the Beast, the Musical,” and well, I couldn’t let it end on that manly note for him.

Waiting in line I could feel the apprehension coming over me thinking of all the ups and downs.  And by the looks on everybody else’s face, they had the same feeling.  That is, of course, except for Wyatt.  He had a grin from ear to ear.

The really funny part was after we buckled ourselves into the seat, Wyatt put his hands straight up.  I looked at the other 28 riders, and, like me, their hands were all glued to their seat handles.  “Dad, put your hands up”, he hollered as we started our way up to the top.  “It’s way funner this way.”  Of course my hands stayed glued.  It was so humorous looking around and seeing this 5 year old with his arms up, embracing what was surely to come, while the rest of us held on for dear life.  “Dad, I’m serious.  Let go, and hold your hands up.  It’s way funner this way”.  Despite his pleas, I held on tight.  He laughed through the entire ride while the rest of us screamed our heads off.

“Count it all joy when you face various trials,” James 1:2 says.  Easier said than done.  How can it be that in our ledger of life we put the trials we face in the debit column?  Most of us drawing up a list of good things that have happened to us in our lives would not put trials on that list.  How can it be than we count it joy to face things that are downright difficult?  The ups and downs, suddenly, at light speed?

The answer comes in the next few verses.  And it is that trials produce endurance, and endurance makes us mature, grown up, complete, lacking in nothing.  Endurance – not Jerry MaGuire – completes me.  Perseverance - keep on keeping on - helps turn us into whom we need to be.  Like being married for umpteen number of years, just the sheer sticking it out together helps us to mature, draws us closer together – not that I’m drawing a parallel between marriage and encountering various trials.

You see facing and living through the trials of today makes it easier and easier to face the trials of tomorrow that will surely come.  It somehow brings a spirit about us that enables us to face, in just the right way, the rest of our lives, whether that’s just one more day or a thousand.  Because we know that His eye is on the sparrow, and He cares for me.  Because the victory is won.  Because we realize that this too shall pass and we will make it through to the end, or in our case, the beginning. 

Facing the ride for the 6^thtime, Little Wyatt knew what to expect, what was going to come of it.  He knew that at the end he would be okay, and that despite the ups and downs, he’d live to see another day.  In fact he even found the joy in the ups and downs.  Turns out - according to James - the most mature one on the whole ride was little 5 year old Wyatt.  And when we are able to do that, to let go and trust God, when we hold our hands up and find the joy in even the ups and downs, then we too will finally be all grown up.

When we got off, Wyatt commented how this time he had laughed during the whole entire ride.  Wyatt’s way was much funner. 

HIS way is too!