Yesterday’s big local news: A rollercoaster at Pleasurewood Hills broke down, leaving twenty-seven people stranded 50ft in the air. Two-and-a-half hours later fire crews rescued them.
Afterwards, a Pleasurewood Hills statement included: ‘We would like to say a huge thank you to every rider… for their patience and understanding while the situation was resolved.’ Well said!
We appreciate that being stuck on a ride at height is not something anyone expects when visiting us…’ Really? I smiled.
At Men’s Shed, yesterday’s discussion: ‘The Purple People Eater’, a 1958 song by Sheb Wooley (who was in Rawhide with Clint Eastwood) about a ‘one-eyed, one-horned, flyin’ purple people-eater.’
We wondered whether it was a people-eater that happened to be purple, or a creature that ate purple people.
I confess that I find that sort of discussion amusing. My sense of humour sometimes gets me into trouble. My family say, ‘Don’t laugh!’ ‘Don’t encourage him!’ I appreciate their patience and understanding.
Yesterday – International Overdose Awareness Day – 31st August. I read of drug overdose deaths increasing… opioids accounting for 69 percent of drug overdose deaths. Stuck on the rollercoaster… a tragic people-eater:
‘The illegal nature of drugs and profound stigma associated with drug use leaves an overwhelming reluctance in many parts of the world to acknowledge, let alone report on, drug-related deaths.’
We remember with compassion, respect, sadness… those living with addictions, those who’ve survived overdoses, those who didn’t make it…… Patience and understanding? It’s too easy to have limited patience… and say ‘I understand’ when we don’t really.
This morning, reading Hosea… God tells Hosea to marry Gomer the prostitute… She has a child with him… She returns to her old profession… stuck on the people-eating rollercoaster… Hosea buys her back, takes her back, loves her…
It’s a picture of:
Patience… God’s continuing love for His people – like me – through their faithlessness, mess-ups, bad choices and poor decisions.
Understanding… God understands through hurt, anger, addictions – even if I don’t – longing for, working towards, restoration and renewal.
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