Not A New Thought

A long time ago my English friend J posted a blog about life being very much as a train ride.  People get on at different stops, and get off along the way.  On the train, acquaintances are made. Sometimes there are strong bonds discovered, others are simply greetings passed between each other. 

I’ve always enjoyed trains, just as I enjoy the photo above on a route between Fremont and San Jose, California.  As is life, they are both beautiful and confining.  Passengers cannot do all they wish, just as in life we cannot do all we wish.  There are boundaries set, walls erected and we pass by places we would which to linger, stopping at stations that are neither desired nor are comforting.

The journey’s destination is of our choosing, though.  There are stations along the way where we can choose a different train. No matter which one we are on, there is a destination.  And, there is a price to be paid.

In life’s journey, a price has been paid for us:

For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. (1 Corinthians 6:20 KJV)

This was the base of God’s plan:

For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; (1 Corinthians 15:3 KJV)

This was not expected.  God’s ways are not man’s ways – we see through a glass, darkly, as to how He plans:

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. (1 Corinthians 2:9 KJV)

What faith it would have required for the disciples to have accepted Christ’s death without fear, without regret, without feeling as though there were no tomorrow.  They didn’t have that faith, but gained it as they realized His death was set from the beginning of time:

But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (1 Corinthians 2:7-8 KJV)

Here in our physical world, we trust the rails will hold the train, and for the most of the time, they do.  We trust the engines will continue, and are only inconvenienced when they don’t.  We trust the engineer to have to knowledge to reach our destination.  All of this for hours or, at the most, days.

The spiritual destination takes greater trust, stronger faith that God is able.  I believe He is, and pray for you Paul’s greeting:

Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: (Galatians 1:3-4 KJV)