Sixty years ago as a young teenager, I added to my lawn mowing service and on the weekends I worked at Boulder Amusement Park in Indian Falls, New York. I was available all day Saturday and thankfully, I didn’t have to check in until 1:00 on Sunday so I was able to attend church, grab a bite of lunch and my mom or dad took me on the ten-minute drive.

The ride I ran was called “The Kiddie Whip!” It was a noisy little ride where two or three children could be seated in the car. A little strap held them in and a little bar came down for them to hang on for dear life. The bumpy little ride flew around the corner and pushed those children back in their seats. There was no middle ground of reaction.

Some screamed in sheer terror and wailed so hard I had to stop it on the first time around.
Others screamed in exuberance and couldn’t wait for the next corner to be whipped back in their seats. It was the same ride, the same aged children and in some cases even the same siblings and yet the reaction was totally different.

What a life application. Life’s experiences, as hard as they may be, are similarly shared with others. Paul reminds us that our experiences are “common to man” (1 Corinthians 10:13). The same trials. The same temptations. The same circumstances are shared with others. The difference is how we react to it.

I have seen people respond to hardships with anger, bitterness, and rejection.
I have seen people respond to hardship with trust, quietness, and submission.

Think of these wonderful verses.

“I will bless the LORD at all times: His praise shall continually be in my mouth” (Psalm 34:1).
“And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely: Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks. At midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them”

Funny how all these years later I can still hear the merry-go-round music as it played to my left as well as the train whistle across the bridge of the park. Little did I know that those early days would begin me on my start to being with people with two different reactions to life happenings. How is it with you dear friend?