Sometimes you wish the world to stop so you can get off. I used to read the Calvin and Hobbes comic every day. That does date me because it’s been a long time since that day it last appeared in our paper. Today is much different and I find myself reading it on line but not so often anymore. Something prompted me to read it last week. Calvin yells at Hobbes as he was going by Hobbes roller skating down a hill; “How do I stop?” Hobbes yells back; “Steer into the gravel sidewalk and fall down.” Calvin comes back into the next frame all covered in gravel and dirt and looking injured. On seeing this, Hobbes said to him, “That was only a suggestion.”
While it does have some humour to it, I think there is more to it then a polite smile. Isn’t life like that? We are enjoying life and going along wonderfully. We are indeed skating down a slight grade, and the ride is exhilarating. Nothing could be better and the thrill of the ride is more then we could ever believe we would enjoy in life.
For some of us, it’s the thrill of the ride. We enjoy the wind in our hair, and we believe nothing could be better. That is until we realize we have had enough, or it’s going just a little too fast for our liking or the end of the real estate is coming at us very quickly. Then we think it’s time to get off. For us slower paced individuals, it could be akin to getting on a Ferris wheel that never stops. You can only go around so many times and you have had enough.
You may be out there on the never-ending ride. You could be going around and around with no end in sight. It can be a terrible feeling when you realize that you have had enough and you want to get off and off right now and it’s almost beyond your control. The rat race is not necessarily filled with cheese or the grasping of a gold ring. I think we do enjoy it for a time. But then . . . The musical, with the circus as the backdrop, says it all in its title: “Stop the world I want to get off” Does that say it all for you?
The time comes, and we know beyond a shadow of a doubt, it’s time. Unfortunately, this might come with some scrapes and bruises. Life is that way. And when it happens, because it will, Jesus will be there to pick us up and put us on solid ground. He is there and He is not silent because He cares for you. Then and only then can we sing this song and know what it really means. Sing with me;
He never, never, never leaves us
He's always standing by
To pick us up if we stumble
We're the apple of his eye . . .
Something to sing about
Rob