Word of the Week
Ferris Wheel
I don't know what it is, but I absolutely love the State Fair.
The smell of grilled food hanging in the air. The barns filled with cattle, sheep, and horses. The sounds of the midway. The glow of carnival lights after sunset. Kids carrying oversized stuffed animals. Funnel cakes. Lemon shake-ups. Watching people from every walk of life wander the fairgrounds with nowhere to be except wherever the next memory is waiting.
For me, the State Fair has always been the exclamation point on summer. But every year, there's one attraction that captures me more than any other—the Ferris wheel. To me, it's the most iconic signature! It's slow. Predictable. Not all that thrilling compared to the rides around it. Yet somehow it's the one I never get tired of watching, and sometimes riding (even though I don't like heights).
As cliche as it is, life with Jesus feels a lot like riding a Ferris wheel. Sometimes you're climbing. Life is full of joy, momentum, and answered prayers. Sometimes you're descending. Things feel uncertain, heavy, or disappointing. Sometimes the wheel stops, and you're left waiting far longer than you'd planned.
And here's something else I've noticed, when you're at the bottom, you can't see much at all. Your perspective is blocked by everything around you. But when you reach the top, suddenly the whole fair comes into view. What felt chaotic from below now looks ordered from above.
We usually understand God's work best looking backward, not while we're living through it. His perspective has always been higher than ours.
"As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."— Isaiah 55:9
Wherever you find yourself this week—at the top, on the way down, or feeling like life has come to a complete stop—remember that God sees everything from the top in His order and meets you wherever you are to provide you whatever you need to live this life for His glory and your good.
Trust Him with the ride.
Also this coming Tuesday, we'd love to hang out with you at the Indiana State Fair for $2 Tuesday. Tickets, rides, and certain food items are all $2.
- Dwayne