Trains

You run a sad train, mister.  You take people away when they don’t want to go and won’t bring them back when they are ready.  Charles Anderson in Shenandoah

One of my favorite movies of all time, is Shenandoah.  I love all the characters, their close family, and I especially love the scene where the Anderson family stops a Union train to look among the Confederate prisoners bound for prison for their brother and son.  They found instead their son in law/brother in law and freed all the prisoners on the train.

There are so many different trains – passenger, freight, fast, slow – I love to hear the whistle blowing as it approaches stations along the way.  When I was a little girl, my PaPa took me on a train ride from Donalsonville to Iron City, a total of 5 miles!   I still remember how excited I was to this day.  I sat on his lap and watched the scenery go by from the window of the train (it’s not like it raced by in that five mile trip).  Normally the train went without stopping to Bainbridge twenty miles down the track,  but this day, they stopped to let us off and then started again.

Now, many places have hop on, hop off, buses and trains to make it easy to get where you are going.  One ticket and you can get off and get back on to continue your journey when you are ready.  You can start the trip when you want and stop when you choose.

The train of life provides us many opportunities to start and stop.  God has provided us with the ticket for the train, the chance to ride, and the means with which to enjoy it. We can hop on the train and start a new career, start reading the Bible, start doing for others, start praying, and basically start anything at anytime on the journey.

We can also hop off, and stop doing something harmful, stop hurting our loved ones, stop being self centered, stop a bad habit, stop complaining, and stay here until we are ready to continue.

Jesus has provided us with helpful tools for our trip.  He has given us a compass in the form of our conscience.  If we listen, we innately know what is right and wrong, and we know if we need to start or stop doing it.

He has also provided us a road map for referral on our trip. The road map is the Bible.  Sometimes we need to stop listening to what the world thinks, hop off the train, and go check out the road map.  Reaffirmed, we can then hop back on and start again.

Jesus has given us a personal guide in the form of the Holy Spirit.  We have only to ask, knock, seek and the Holy Spirit will make the journey plain as we travel.

God runs a train for sinners, hypocrites, young, old, rich, poor, men, women, children, and everything in between. During this time of Lent, maybe we should consider a train ride.  All we need to do is present our ticket and start the journey!