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By Marie Harrison

For the Clemmons Courier

My family spent the last week walking on the surface of the sun, otherwise known as Disney World in July. I could tell you that it was hot, but that wouldn’t fully describe what we experienced.

High humidity mixed with even higher temperatures and walking 20,000-plus steps a day will truly drain every last bit of energy out of you. I have never loved or appreciated air conditioning more, and for my kids, when we found a ride that offered lines inside an air-conditioned building, they were more than willing to ride, no matter how juvenile the ride may have seemed. And so, this is how we found ourselves in line to ride the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin.

The ride itself is simple. Sit in a cart, point your laser gun at all the spots marked by a “Z” for the bad guy, Zurg, and earn points. And yet, somehow this ride always gets me. My family points their guns, earns their points and walks out with scores in the hundreds of thousands. Me? I’m lucky to get four figures. And to make matters worse, my husband and son know the “secret.”  The three special places you have to hit in order to get the maximum score — 999,999.

As we stood in line, waiting to ride, everyone betting that mom would get the lowest score yet again, one of the kind attendants heard us. Sensing a fellow mom in need of some help, she pulled me over.

“Do you know how to get the max score?” she asked. “No,” I replied, “I definitely do not.” This kind lady then proceeded to pull me over, talk me through the ride, carefully explain the three targets I needed to hit, their locations, left or right, up, or down, robot arm or robot leg. She gave me all the details I needed to succeed. My family looked scared. Mom was armed with the knowledge. Would Mom take top honors this time?

I wish I could say that as the ride ended, I rolled out of my cart with a great big grin and the number 999,999 flashing, but that just wouldn’t be true. While every member of my family boasted high scores in the hundreds of thousands, I came out with a measly 16,000. What went wrong? I knew what to hit. My new friend had carefully explained exactly what to do. I was armed with all the knowledge I needed to succeed, and yet I didn’t. We even rode the ride a second time, partly because I wanted to try again and partly because we really love A/C, and I still came out with the lowest score. What went wrong?

As I thought about my apparent lack of skill where this particular ride is concerned, I couldn’t help but think how much this mirrors our everyday life. God has given us all we need to succeed. He has carefully laid out the rules for us to follow, the Ten Commandments.

And yet, even though we are armed with all we need to succeed, we still fail. We all fall short. Despite our best intentions, we all fail to live up to the standards God has set for us. But unlike the ride, we aren’t just left to wallow in our failures. We aren’t left to continually try again and again and fall short with no hope of redemption. God loves us. He made a way for us to succeed, even though we failed. Jesus died for our sins, not His.

Jesus loved each one of us so much, He was willing to do whatever it takes to make a way for us to be forgiven, and free. You see, with Jesus, we don’t have to worry about measuring up or doing things on our own, our salvation has already been secured. All we have to do is put our trust wholeheartedly in Jesus and instantly we are freed from the cycle of trying and failing on our own.

In this ride we call life, Jesus is the only mark we need to hit. And when we do, when we fully surrender and admit our own flaws, admit our own failures, and look solely to Jesus for our redemption, we get something even greater than a 999,999 on a scoreboard. We get an eternity in heaven with the God who loves us so much, He was willing to die just to save us. Now that’s what I call a jackpot!