Close to the Tracks

"These people draw near to Me with their mouth,
And honor Me with their lips,
But their heart is far from Me.
And in vain they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men." (Matthew 15:8-9 NKJV)

I have always been fascinated by big machines. I think most young boys are attracted to them, or at least in my memory it seemed like most of us were. Today, children have so much to divert their attention that it’s harder to say what will cause them to dream big dreams or imagine wide landscapes.

When I was very young, we lived in the country and most of my time was spent alone or with my mom. Then, when I was two and half, my brother came along but he wasn’t any fun for another two years so I had lots of time to learn to play alone. One of the highlights of my young life was when the road-scraper (that’s what we called it ‘cause that’s what it did) came down the gravel road we lived on. I would run almost all the way out to the end of our dirt driveway to watch it come by. It was huge! Or at least it seemed that way to me. I thought driving a road-scraper must be about the most fun job in the world. Lately, I’ve readjusted my thinking and there are a couple of positions that might be a little more challenging but back then – that was a big machine to a little boy and it seemed like a big responsibility.

That’s also the way trains made me feel! If we would catch a train at a railroad crossing, especially if we happened to be the first car, it always felt like the train was extremely powerful and it seemed like it was going so fast that it would just suck our car right onto the tracks! Did you ever experience that? We would count the cars and wait for the caboose and most of the time the men who rode the caboose would wave at us. We always thought it was really nice of them to wave at us because we knew they had really important jobs and we were just regular people. I thought it would be awfully exciting to ride up in the engine or the caboose and get to go to all the wonderful places the train was headed to! Trains were amazing.

But there's another thing I noticed about trains. Besides seeming awfully powerful, they were loud! As a young boy, the train was one of the loudest noises I had ever heard. The sound they made seem to move the earth!

Well, I’ve recently had a refresher course in trains! Some of you may know that we just moved back to Thomasville. We moved into a beautiful little house that's brand new. We are the first people to live in it and it is wonderful! I think we are really going to like it but there is one thing that really got our attention. There’s a railroad track about fifty yards from our back door. At least every two hours a train goes by. Sometimes they pass after only a fifteen minute interval. While there have been a lot of improvements to trains in the last fifty years, one thing is still very true and I have been reminded how true it is! Trains are still loud!

I'm sure that isn't news to most of us but, living close to the tracks like we are, we have come to realize something profound! When you live close to the tracks, you can hear the train!

Maybe that's what Jesus was wanting us to understand. When we live close to God, we can hear Him when He speaks to us! I know that's something I need. Maybe I just need to make sure I'm living close to the tracks!