- Clean Up
On a daily basis, trains are typically swept and wiped down to remove litter and debris. On the exterior, they may go through a high-pressure wash to remove dirt and grime, the windshield wiper fluid and sand (for traction) are replenished as needed, and finally, the train is positioned for its next run. For deeper cleaning, the inside of cars are thoroughly cleaned by wiping down the whole interior; seats, floors, and surfaces, and the engine or specifically the components, may require specialized cleaning techniques.
In our lives, we too need to at times, do some clean up. Daily, we need to go to God in prayer and ask for forgiveness for any sins we may have committed. We also need to read God’s word to know if there is in any way something that we need to change or do to better ourselves in Christ. And finally, daily we need to choose to remain faithful and true to our Lord and Savior by making him first in our lives, even though we may have strayed a little during the day.
The deeper cleaning of our lives can be much more difficult than that of the daily cleaning. This is when we need to look into the purpose and focus of our hearts. We need to examine all that is in our lives and determine if they are what God desires to be there. A deeper cleaning may simply be us organizing and putting God back in the front of all our other priorities, but at times… It is cleaning out what shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
Everyone likes stepping into a clean train car. They don’t cringe at the sight of garbage or the smell of rotten food. They simply walk in, sit down, and prepare for the journey ahead. We should want our lives to be that way as well when someone enters it. As believers in Christ, we should desire lives that are clean from worldly darkness and sin, but shining clean with the glory of God.
Do you need a good clean-up today? If so… are you willing to do it?
- Consistency Brings Stability
Consistency brings stability… and joy… if you let it.
While a train job can be rewarding, some find the long periods of driving, the potential for monotony, and the responsibility of ensuring safety to be the most challenging and potentially boring aspect.
I kind of see that in the monotony of everyday living. We seem to be going through life, doing the same things every day, with no hope of anything changing. It is like the excitement has left and all you can do is same old consistent thing.
I use that word consistent because consistency is a good thing, not because it is supposed to be boring. But at times, it can grow into that if we lose perspective.
For a train worker, doing the same thing over and over again can either get old and boring, or it can be something that promises them a consistent reward. Stability is the word that comes to mind.
Stability is the state of being stable (not likely to give way or overturned; firmly fixed). When it comes to a job, stability is important. No, it may not be your favorite thing to do, which is probably a good thing, but it is a necessary thing to do. Being guaranteed a steady income gives you the means to do the things you love to do.
In the Christian walk, we are not supposed to allow the stability or consistency of life remove our joy. That is when we are allowing our perspectives or purpose to be overtake by our emotions. God says, not to allow our unstable emotions to control us, but rather we need to have control over our emotions. How do we do that? By obeying God in every area of our lives, that includes the repetitiveness of a job and life.
Don’t let the monotony of everyday living rob you of the joy that God has offered every one of his children. Instead, look at it as a way of God providing for your needs and then remember that no matter how many times you do something, your life is filled with love, peace, and joy from the Lord.
So, put a smile on your face once again, because you have him taking care of you.
- It Changes You
It has been just over a year since I first started writing posts for Tracks of Life, but in my mind the posts have progressed through many years of growth. Meaning that with every post, I hope you are growing in your Christian life, as a child would as they learn and mature in age.
Our train is now long with many new cars that have been added over the years. Each car is unique to every individual train and life. We add cars that make us happen, but at times, cars get added because life happens. No one can prepare us for everything that may come into our lives or aboard our trains. So as time goes on, sometimes we have to remove a car or something from our train of life.
The one thing that I want to bring today, is the car of bitterness. Now, no one plans on become bitter about something or towards someone. Usually, it is the aftermath of a previous circumstance that lost control.
Definition: A bitter person often exhibits a baseline mood of anger, disappointment, or irritability, struggles with forgiveness, and can display behaviors like passive-aggression, excessive criticism, and withholding affection, often blaming others for their problems.
Ephesians 4:31-32 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
Bitterness is a feeling that is fed by emotion. It can easily get out of control and destroy a person’s soul if not removed. It can completely change a person’s character and heart if fed with hate. That is why we need to remove it from our life train.
For many years, I had a family member that was bitter towards a couple that hurt me and mom. They spoke hateful words about us and literally tried to destroy our hope and purpose. This family member protected me and mom from these people, but then as years went and his mind continually festered on what happen, bitterness began to set into his life. He became angry and started lashing out towards those that did nothing wrong. He would lose control over his feeling because of the pain of what they said about his family.
Now, jump ahead 5 to 6 years later, and he is now back to his happy self. He finally was able to, not remove the pain, but no long let it control him and make him bitter. He couldn’t change what happened, but he didn’t want to allow it to any long change him. He removed the car of bitterness from his life.
I have my dad back. There were a few years, I didn’t even want to talk to him out of fear he would get upset over the smallest things. I could bring up anything that reminded him of the past or else I would regret the words that may follow.
Bitterness is a terrible thing. It you have it in your life, remove it before it affects those you love the most.
- Weather Report Windy
Last night, I had the opportunity to experience strong crosswinds for the first time as I tried to sleep in our travel van on the plains of South Dakota. At times, it felt as if the van would tip over or be picked up by the wind and carried to another state. Luckily, I am exaggerating a little, but for me never experiencing that before it was pretty dramatic, especially because there was a dumpster across the road with a lid that was constantly banging in the night. But this experience had me thinking. How does wind affect trains?
Wind significantly impacts train operations, potentially causing derailment, collisions, damage to infrastructure, and safety hazards, requiring speed reduction or temporary halts. Strong crosswinds can push trains off the tracks, especially during acceleration or at high speeds. It creates additional aerodynamic forces on a train, potentially leading to instability and difficulty in controlling the train. Cargo can blow off trains, causing damage to other objects or posing hazards to other trains. And there is so much more.
For so long, I thought that the size and weight of a train seemed to be so massive that I could never have imagined that wind could do so much damage to it. But going through 29 – 30 mile an hour winds last night, I am no longer surprised.
Wind is a funny thing; you can’t see it, but you can feel it. It can be soft and inviting on warm summer days, or it can be bitterly cold and aggressive on a wintery day. It is kind of like our emotions. At times, we feel things that are warm and joyous, but other times hard memories arise and the pain or regret from those situations resurface causing all sorts of mixed emotions.
Emotions are hard. They often hit us without warning and stay longer than we would like. Occasionally, damage can be received through them, leaving scars or unimaginable change in a persons life. Wind-damaged trains can be fixed, but then they are no longer new. We, too, can be fixed, with time and refocusing on what is important, but like the train, we are no longer new.
Research shows that emotions are strongly tied to memory formation and retrieval, with emotionally charged experiences often leading to more vivid and lasting memories, particularly those linked to strong positive or negative emotions, due to the activation of the amygdala (where emotions influence memory in the brain).
No matter what winds of emotion you are going through right now, slow down like our engineer (Jesus Christ) would advise, and take precautions before you are derailed. Our emotions can often cause quite a bumpy ride if not checked. And if you don’t know what exactly God would want you to do with all the feelings going through your body, then pray and let him do a work in you, helping to to sort out all the thoughts and emotions in your mind. - When in the Valley
Being in the Valleys of life is often very different from the valleys when riding a train. When I visualize coming into an open area between the mountains, I see beautiful green forests surrounding a lake of pure blue waves. But when we come to a valley in our lives, oftentimes beauty is the last thing we see.
I have a friend who is currently in one of those hard valleys. He received news of his sister having stage 4 cancer. The doctors informed the whole family that she didn’t have much time left to live. Beauty is nowhere insight for my friend and his family.
They will experience the downward feeling of emotions as their family member begins to pass away. At the bottom, they will have an emptiness inside of them that will seem to never leave. But as time goes on, and God shows his amazing love, they will slowly make their way out of the valley and back into the mountain paths.
We as their friends can come alongside of them and show God’s love to them as they work through their pains. We can comfort them with words and actions until they can stand up on their own once again.
Do you have someone in your life who is currently going through a valley? Are you helping them? Encouraging them? If not start today, because the pain and sorrow of a valley in one’s life requires friendship and God’s love to get through it with as few scars as possible.
I’m afraid to say that coming across valleys is inevitable, for trains and in life. We need to work together to get through them.
Do you hear it?
The gentle rumble, the click-clack of the tracks, the metal gears grinding together, or the piercing whistle that clears the skies. As you watch from a platform full of people, you see it gradually getting closer, and your excitement flares for an unexpected adventure that is about to begin. You’re not thinking about anyone else who is standing near you, where they are going, how long they will be on the train, or even if this is their train. All you can think about is when you are leaving and what exciting things may happen along the way.
Traveling is always great fun, but I want to use this picture of a train and change it slightly.
What if you, or rather, your life was that train, and the rails that you will be running on are time? Makes it a little different right?
When you are born, your train leaves the rail yard. You just spent 9 months being put together and prepared for a lifelong journey. You only have your engine and the coal car as you pull out onto your very own track. It’s all shiny new, ready to be used and experienced. And it is those experiences that point you to your final destination.
Where are you going? What will you see? Will it be fun or dangerous? Who will you meet? When will the track end?
There are so many things that we don’t know when we start life, but as each year goes by and a new car is added to our train, we slowly learn and grow.
I want to take you on this great adventure with me. Each day, we will go through life experiences as we make our way down our track of time. Some will be hard, others will seem insignificant, but all are very important. It’s your choice. All I can say is…