Arm in Arm

Disneyland again. I am truly sorry if you tire of hearing about Disneyland, but it seems to be where all the interesting events in my life find their meaning. This last weekend was Parents & Family weekend here at Biola, also known as one of the best weekends of my college career. My parents and my little brother (and by little I mean age, not stature; he's almost a foot taller than me) flew out to hang out with me, catch up on life, and explore my world. Sunday afternoon I spent a lovely time with my family in Disneyland, wandering back and forth between the two parks, eating ice cream, riding rides, sighing when rides were down for maintenance, and just generally enjoying being with my family.

At 7:20 that evening we had made plans to meet a group of my friends from Biola for dinner. This turned out to be a very interesting event to plan, because we could not figure out how many people were coming. In the span of two days the total went from 3 to 6 to 8 to 10 to 14 to finally 13. This all worked out great, the Disney people were more than gracious about accommodating us. After dinner my parents and I said our good-byes and we headed off in separate directions. After many of my friends went in turns assuring me that I have the best parents ever (they were right, by the way), we all headed off toward a ride called California Screamin'. On the way, someone decided it would be a good idea to link arms, so many of us formed a long chain as we frolicked toward the ride. This turned out to be an exceptionally dangerous endeavor. We nearly ran someone into every lamppost we saw, and we had to break our chain several times for many a terrified family.

Thinking on this little walk we took, I cannot help but marvel at how distinctly dangerous it is to walk with people, to trust them. In the case of our journey towards California Screamin', it was particularly dangerous to trust everyone else to lead us, or pull us along, without harm. So many times I almost ran into posts, and so many more times I nearly fell on my face. But that's the thing: scary as it was to almost do those things, I never actually ran into anything or fell over. When faced with the fear of running into something, I still had power to steer the group away from it, or to let go momentarily. And every time I lost my balance, I found that those people who were holding on to me inadvertently held me up. In Romans 15:7 Paul writes, "Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God." As dangerous as it may sometimes be to accept and to trust others, it is so worth it, because it brings praise to God. I encourage you to face the danger and accept each other.

Truly His,
Caroline