Up, Up and away….

Maybe it’s all the people I am hearing about going to Disney lately.

Or maybe it’s just something I need to remember…but I have been thinking about a ride we went on about 6 years ago at Epcot called “Soarin'”

Not “Soaring” mind you, which is easier to say and doesn’t involve an awkward combination of apostrophe and quotations…. but hey…it’s Disney.

This ride is a flight simulator which means that after getting all the people settled in their little bench-like ferris wheel compartments, some gizmo lifts them up and out towards a huge screen.

The lights go off and for the next 40 minutes you feel like you are hang-gliding over the entire surface of the earth.

Hang-gliding. Yeah.

Which is just awesome when you struggle with fear of heights.

So as I fought panic and pressed as far back into the seat as I could, gripping the bar for dear life and trying to warn our family through clenched teeth that they needed to stop stretching so dangerously forward…

they responded by leaning further out over the bar and laughing joyfully…

even holding their arms out over their heads.

I never have understood them.

I thought about closing my eyes, but that was more maddening.

Because I could hear them calling, “Look mom!!!” and who knew what crazy stunt they were trying next.

Then I put my foot down.

Literally.

I lowered my feet a little and I could feel some kind of solid surface under me.

I don’t know if it was a platform, a foot rail or maybe it was even the floor for crying out loud.

Because all of a sudden I remembered that I had gotten in a metal cart in a building that is only so many stories high.

And even though all of my senses had convinced me that I was thousands of feet up in the air, strapped to a large wing and…well…soarin’ over the earth, I was really just sitting in a chair a few feet off the floor in front of a big old screen.

That’s how circumstances can be.

Scary and overwhelming and bigger than life.

Are you there today?

Find your footing in what is solid and real and unchanging and true.

Take a deep breath and then exhale.

Lean over the railing a little, lift your arms, and trust in the firm foundation of the One who’s got you and will not let go. Ever.

God bless you as you soar with Him <3