I just got back from a mini-trip to Silverwood Amusement Park with Derek. It was pretty fun! He's just getting old enough to enjoy rides. Even though he's not quite brave enough (or tall enough) to tackle the Big Coasters yet, we still made plenty of hay on the slightly shorter rides. It wasn't just the kiddie rides either! He has something of a thrill streak in him. This actually created something of a problem.
I love amusement park rides. Careen and I used to go to all kinds of parks before we had kids. The thing is, I like rides that climb and zoom, even more if you also get wet. (Think coasters or the log ride.) Derek, as it turns out, likes rides that spin...and spin...and spin and spin and spin and spin. This proves two things:
1. Sometimes the apples does fall far from the tree. Then it rolls down a hill, drops in a stream, floats down to the river, and gets churned up into applesauce in the turbine of a hydroelectric dam. And apparently it LIKES it!
2. Even in the best of times, even when you're having the most...fun...ever, life is still about negotiation and compromise. Those spin-rides don't agree with me. Artichoke dip at midnight? No problem. But one trip on the Tilt-a-Whirl and my stomach is sour for the day. Even so, the unbridled joy on Derek's face as we tried these rides made me suck it up (and in) and ride them at least a couple times each. Except The Scrambler. That was more like a dozen times. In turn I forced him to ride the log ride a couple times even though he got fussy about "getting splashed". The little weenie.
Nothing in life comes easy. You end up having to compromise plenty for the people you love. That's a natural and necessary lesson. The harder one is remembering that God commands us to love everybody, strangers as well as our children. It's a lot harder to compromise in less-than-ideal circumstances with people you don't know, who seem strange, with whom you disagree. But even if it makes your stomach churn like the fourth minute on the Tilt-a-Whirl, you still have to suck it up and do it.
Our world needs a little more compromise and a little less finger pointing and yelling. If it doesn't start with us, God's people, with whom will it start? Find somebody you can start a mutually-giving relationship with today and then do it! Either that or bury the hatchet with somebody with whom you haven't seen eye-to-eye. Your life will be better for it. The world will be too!
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
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