NEWSFLASH: Roller Coaster Derails!

Back in July of 2014, the Ninja roller coaster in Magic Mountain, located in Valencia, CA, going at approximately 55 MPH, ran into a tree branch and derailed. The accident injured six people and left 22 others hanging 30 feet up in the air. Pretty scary stuff. It took hours to complete the rescue.

When this incident happened, it got me thinking about life in general, as events in life usually do. As I thought about the roller coaster striking the tree branch, I began to think about our own lives and how we navigate through it.

Doesn’t it seem like we’re on a roller coaster called Life? Sometimes we’re up, sometimes we’re down. Sometimes we’re going fast, sometimes slowing down; emotionally or physically falling hundreds of feet down, only to be driven back up, and dropped all over again. We go around and around, carrying on day in and day out, repeating the same mundane events, in the same way, on a daily basis. We live as if by rote, forgetting that we had dreams—things we wanted to accomplish, relationships we wanted to build, or rebuild—but we're too set in our daily routine to even notice; never having the nerve to stop, question, and do something different.

But what if one day, we strike a “tree branch,” and it derails us from our perfectly routine lives. This may leave us hanging, wondering what to do, what to say, because after all, it’s something new! We see this derailment as something bad. But is it really? Isn't it a challenge to look beyond our ordinary lives?

Sometimes we need to hit that “tree branch” to put us on our Real Track—the one on which we're meant to be. The one that is meant to fulfill our aspirations.

Hitting that “tree branch” is our chance to re-think what we’re doing. Do we really want to take the same route, at the same speed, in the same seat, every day? Have we forgotten our real purpose?

Let's not wait for the crash to re-evaluate where we are. Let's visit our life today. Take stock. What’s going on? Are we happy? Would we rather be doing something different? We can put ourselves back on the Right Track. We’re the only ones who can do it!

Let's!