Railroad Track Words

During the years between the death of my father and my mother's re-marriage five years later, we lived in Waycross, Georgia.  The first few months we lived in a duplex under the shadow of a nearby city water tank and only a few blocks away from the railroad tracks.  Back then Waycross was a major rail center and tracks went out of town in every direction.  No matter how affluent the neighborhood, those trains rumbling along the tracks could be heard.   Even after we moved on the edge of town, a nearby track provided trains noises all through the night.

 

Back then the common warning about train crossings was "Stop.  Look.  Listen."  I came across those words a few days ago in a book written by Frederick Beuchner entitled, "The Remarkable Ordinary."  There is a line in his book which says, "Stop, look, listen--a lot I think.  I think in a sense that is what Biblical faith is saying, almost before it says anything else.  Stop, and look, and listen."  In the case of a railroad crossing, it is a life saving word.  Maybe, just maybe, it is really no different in our spiritual lives.

 

What we usually would think is that the most important part of our daily spiritual discipline is what we do.  Things like keeping a set time, or maintaining a certain order, or reading chunks of the Word are the things deemed important to our spiritual health.  Who would think that just being aware of what is around us and who, sometimes Who, is speaking to us are the things of real value?  Certainly, it is a harder discipline for us to embrace than the ones which keep us going full speed ahead.