Amusement Parks (Part 1)

Now, don’t get me wrong I like amusement parks. Not the little kiddy rides you find at DisneyLand and definitely not “it’s a small world,” but more like Magic Mountain or Great America (at least that’s what it was called when I was there last. Yes, the rides there can be well…an enjoyable experience. However I heard a phrase that I have never heard the other day. The context was quite different as well. In fact what I’m about to paraphrase was said immediately after a school administrator read the biography of one of our faculty who just passed away. Maybe you will be taken aback from it just as much as I, and you’re not even sitting in the service. Our chaplain stated that maybe we just see our bodies as amusement parks, where any and all can buy a ticket and get a good ride. Or maybe we’re more like Disneyland and offer more on the weekends (or something to that effect). Now, I was taken aback just from the sheer shock of when this statement was made. WOW! There was a small and even more than small murmur that swept through the auditorium as people gasped. Now, do I think that there is a point to all this and that many of us in this world really do think about our bodies in this way, sure. In fact, I think that we often do not even take into consideration the effects that we may have with our actions on others in the simplest of things. However that’s not what I really have thought about. The point I’ve really come to think about is how we at times just carry on with what we want to say, what we have so excitedly prepared and yet we have not listened. We are so unaware of the chaos around us and the brokeness around us so when we speak we stick out like a sore thumb. We are not addressing the issues of the day, instead we are addressing the issues centered around us. It challenges me to constantly, intentionally learn to listen and then only after I have listened to think about what has been said. Not to judge, not to come to quick conclusions, but to actually find and be connected with them where they are at in their lives or where the world is and the needs. Am I missing the mark here? Could you see the difference one would have if this was their goal. I mean, not just listening to God, but listening to others, to the earth, to cultures…you name it. I’d like to think this is just not an ideal, but something extremely practical.