Pastor Brad - Roller Coaster Lyrics

Video

Roller Coaster

Meaning & Inspiration

I remember sitting on my porch back in the spring of 2005, the air just starting to turn warm, listening to Pastor Brad’s Telecaster album for the first time. There’s something about a Telecaster guitar—that bright, piercing twang—that feels honest. It doesn’t hide behind reverb or studio tricks. And that’s exactly how this song, "Roller Coaster," hits me. It’s simple, maybe even a little disarming, but it cuts right to the tension we all feel between our spiritual desires and the gravity of our daily lives.

"Life's a roller coaster spinnin' round and round," he sings. We’ve all felt that, haven’t we? The sudden drops and the loops that leave you disoriented. It’s easy to feel like you’re losing your grip on reality when the world is spinning that fast. But the lyric that stuck with me back then, and still catches me off guard today, is the instruction: "Gotta keep your eyes on heaven and your feet down on the ground."

It’s a strange balance, isn't it? We’re told in Colossians 3:2 to "set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth," yet we are still very much living in the dust. I think there’s a danger in being so heavenly-minded that we’re of no earthly good, but there’s an equal danger in being so obsessed with the ground beneath us that we forget to look up for our hope. Pastor Brad nails that tension. He’s not telling us to escape the ride; he’s telling us how to survive it.

There’s a moment in the second verse where he asks, "Where do you get your strength? Who do you look up to?" It’s a quiet, piercing question. When the days go wrong—and they always do—where does the default go? Do I lean on my own strength, which is usually brittle, or do I remember the One who is "my strength and my shield" (Psalm 28:7)?

Sometimes I find myself trying to power through the "blues" he mentions, thinking I’m supposed to just grit my teeth and endure the ride. But the lyrics offer a better way: "While you're on the mountain top get down on your knees." That image is so evocative. It’s an act of humility. It’s saying, "I know the view is good right now, but I didn’t climb this mountain on my own."

I’ll be honest, sometimes I listen to this and think it’s a bit too straightforward. I want deeper theology or more complex melodies. But then I have a week where I’m tired, where the "roller coaster" feels like it’s going off the tracks, and I realize I don’t need complex theology. I need the reminder to look up. I need the reminder that my feet need to stay planted in the grace I’ve been given.

It’s not a perfect song by any stretch, and those "Woooooaaaaah" choruses definitely take me back to a very specific time in Christian radio. But even now, when I hear that Telecaster bridge chime in, I find myself slowing down. I stop trying to steer the ride myself and just take a breath, realizing that the One who started the ride is the only one who can navigate the turns. It’s a simple call to prayer, and maybe that’s exactly what I needed to be reminded of today.