Day 54: All Aboard

I heard someone pray yesterday and their prayer went something like this, "Lord, help him land safely as he has jumped from one moving train to the next and he feels like he is in mid-air."

Oh how that resonated with me. I immediately had this picture of a very slow moving train, with hundreds of railroad cars attached to each other, winding through the mountain. And atop these cars was a man, jumping from one car to the next. On some of the cars he jumped easily, almost effortlessly, and then trotted down to the end of that car, ready to leap onto the next one.

At times, the gaps between cars was vast and he would have to back up and get a running start in order to be able to clear the gap and land on the next car. And on those occasions, he wasn't sure footed in his landing, but instead landed with a thud and seemed to be a rolling mass of flailing arms and legs. Eventually though, he stopped rolling, and just sat perfectly still, resting before moving on to the next car.

But here's the thing I noticed the most about him. No matter what he did. Whether he jumped or ran, or fell, or rolled, or sat perfectly still, his progress was exactly the same. He was never going to arrive to his destination any faster than the speed of that train.

I thought about that picture all day long. And I pictured myself as that man. And I pictured God as that train. I am constantly jumping and running and falling and rolling and eventually I have to just stop moving altogether because I am worn out. But no matter how hard I strive, I'm not going to arrive at my destination any faster than God intends for me to get there.

In the words of the Psalmist, "Why are you striving so hard?" Why indeed am I striving so hard. . . Imagine if I just allowed myself to ride the train.

All that to say, in the words of my two year old, "All Aboard."