The Tilt-a-whirl of Life

I remember amusement park rides with some nostalgia, some trepidation, and some nausea. I love the swings, though many people say it makes them sick. I think it is so relaxing! The one that literally sends me spinning, though, is the tilt-a-whirl.

Remember that one? You sit in a car reminiscent of a clam shell, with a single bar going across to hold you in, and hopefully you have other people in the car with you, and this is the one time where it’s good to be fat: when inertia sends your co-riders into your side, they won’t crush you. Too bad for them, though, when it spins the other way!

The ride begins and the whole platform goes around, like a merry-go-round. Then the individual cars spin on their own axes (plural of “axis”; I looked it up). First one way and then the other, all the while sending their passengers into the walls of the clamshell and into their co-riders, all of whom are screaming willy-nilly.

Why does this happen? Why do we slide into each other in a tilt-a-whirl, or even just in a car going around a turn?

Inertia is the tendency of an object to resist a change in motion. When you’re driving at 55 miles an hour and slam on the brakes, your body still wants to move at 55 mph. Thank goodness for seat belts! Centrifugal force (which is not technically a force) describes the object’s tendency to push outwards from the center, when the object is moving in a curve. Centripetal force works in countermeasure to keep the object in. This is why we lean into the curve when we’re in a car; inertia, and centrifugal force, want to send us out, but leaning in with centripetal force keeps us in. But in a tilt-a-whirl, we’re moving so fast and we only have that inadequate bar to hold us in and we just fling around screaming.

But this not a blog about physics.

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In one of the videos in Jen Wilkins’s Bible study on 1 Peter, she described our tendency to resist hardship and trials and suffering. We don’t like suffering. As someone who lives with suffering and pain daily, I can attest to that! But then Jen said, “Lean in.” I’m not sure if this was her intention, but those words brought tilt-a-whirls to my mind.

When we are in the midst of trials, our natural tendency is to flee outward, like centrifugal force. To flee the center. But Peter encourages us to resist that desire: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which [is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:3-7

Our tendency is to flee outward from trial; what benefit do we gain from resisting that tendency? We have a living hope in Christ, an imperishable inheritance, and (stated elsewhere in Scripture) we are God’s children and co-heirs with Christ. God is our Father, strong and comforting, loving and compassionate.

When we face trials, let’s lean in. When the tilt-a-whirl of life is spinning out of control, lean in. Lean in to the lap of God and let Him comfort us. Lean in to a conversation with the One who cares about us and has done so from eternity past. Lean in.