Disney Parks have something called FastPass® Services or “FastPasses” for short. The service is designed to cut wait time for an attraction or ride. I don’t know exactly how they work now but used to, you would select a ride you wished to go on and input your ticket and out pops your FastPass showing a time period where you can return and enter a specific line and enjoy the attraction quicker than waiting in long lines.
Man how I wish I could have a FastPass in life sometimes. I could just call the Lord, show him my “I’m Saved” ticket and He would say “come on through this trial with this FastPass”. I could choose to avoid pain and sorrow. I could just live the exciting ride of a lifetime. If I see trouble on the horizon, I could FastPass my way through it.
Sounds pretty cool. But God didn’t design us or life that way. We don’t get to go through life with a FastPass. Life isn’t always a fun, easy carnival ride. Salvation isn’t a ticket to be punched and God is not Mickey Mouse.
He designed us to need Him and to rely on Him and to grow into the best Christian we can be. And unfortunately if we “fastpassed” through life’s trials and sorrows and tough times, we would think we were doing it on our own and didn’t need Him.
I don’t love all the trials I’ve had to go through in my life. In fact, I have hated most of them. But God has offered us the best pass ever created and that is the ticket of salvation to live a life full of Joy in Jesus.
It is not a ticket of ease and a pain-free life but it is a relationship with the One who takes you through these trials and holds your hand the entire time; the One who makes sure you grow as you go through the trials and lets you come out stronger on the other side; and the One who knows exactly how much and what you need to grow into a better Christian.
FastPasses sold here. No thanks. I’ll wait.
I Corinthians 10:13 – And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
