June 2018 - GraceAndWorks

When I was a “little” guy living on the farm in Western Nebraska, we had railroad tracks about a 1/4 mile from our house. I remember going up next to the tracks and watching the train go by. Clickety-clack, clickety-clack, you could hear the wheels rolling on the track. I would count the cars and sometimes these trains were upwards of 150 cars. Two, three, or four engines pulling the cars and bringing up the rear was a caboose. There were flatbed cars, grain cars, coal cars, box cars, cars carrying semi trailers that carried automobiles, lumber cars, etc. Most of the cars you could see what was on them, but with the box cars the cargo was out of sight. There were times when I would pick up rocks and through them at the box cars and watch them glance off. If Mom or Dad caught me doing that, I was in TROUBLE!! They told me the rock could hit me as it glanced off, but I didn’t listen to them because it had never happened and I figured it probably never would, so I kept throwing them. HA!! It was also fun to put a penny on the track and then try to find it after the train ran over it. Out of all the pennies I wasted doing this, I can only remember finding one of them and was it ever flattened out (Wasn’t supposed to do that either).

In the winter time, there would be a big snow plow mounted to the front engine. I always thought to myself, why do they need the snow plow? Wasn’t the train heavy enough to stay on the tracks no matter how deep the snow was? What I didn’t know was that the snow could actually cause the train to derail and the derailed cars would end up in a heap at the side of the tracks. I can remember a couple times where cars would jump the tracks and derail (summertime). What a mess!!

Today, I find myself watching people. Most of them you can pretty much tell what is going on, but some are like the box cars. What kind of cargo are they carrying? Anger? Happiness? Grudges? Plots for trouble? Drug/alcohol problems? Family issues? Problems at work? No job? Money issues? Health issues? I wonder, is the cargo heavy enough to cause them to “Derail?” Will they end up in a heap somewhere? Is there a snow plow to clear the way for them? Do they have God in their life? So many questions!! That is why we need to be kind, patient, steadfast in our own beliefs, a living example to those around us, and have God first in our lives. Let Him be the snow plow so we can stay on our tracks.

SMILE God loves YOU!! Have a good day all.

It was nighttime in Southeast Nebraska. The stars were shining and all was good, except, off in the distance there was a thunderstorm brewing. I was headed to a sales call out in the country. Being young and foolish, I wasn’t too concerned about the storm and proceeded to the call. About an hour and a half later as I was getting ready to head home, it started to rain. The lightning was sharp and the thunder was making loud ka-booms. I got in my little Ford Courrier pickup and headed through the country to get back to the pavement and I thought I knew a shortcut. Yeah-HaHa!! The Rain is now coming down in buckets, the road is solid with lots of gravel on it. No, it wasn’t paved!! Then all of a sudden the gravel stopped and it is pure mud!!! I go probably about a hundred yards into this mud and finally get stopped. Boy, that was a wild ride trying to keep my truck out of the ditch. Now I’m stopped and it appears I’m stuck in the mud, 10:00 o’clock at night and no farm lights to be seen. Now what?? I can’t go forward–who knows how far this road is mud? Soooo I put it in reverse and eased out the clutch to see if it will even move. Wow, it’s actually moving. WHEW!! Now to keep it on the road in this awful slick mud. It is black dark outside and I can’t see where I’m going, so I hold the door open with one hand while I’m driving with the other hand, one foot on the clutch and the other foot on the foot pedal. The truck is spinning mud everywhere, it’s slipping and sliding as I inch my way back to solid road. It took about 30 seconds to get as far as I did in the mud and about an hour, inch by inch, to get out. Finally I’m back on solid ground and headed home, my door, inside the cab, and my leg all covered with mud. I get home about midnight and had never been so happy to see the house.

I tell you this story, because in life we can be doing fine, except we see a storm off yonder brewing up. It hits us and the road we were on turns to muck. We have to gather ourselves and figure out how to get back on solid road. We try to do it ourselves and nothing is working–we are stuck. Oh, hey, God might help, we think to ourselves. So we go to God in prayer and ask for help. Then we go to the scriptures and find passages of instruction. Inch by inch we back ourselves out of the muck to reach that solid ground that we so desire. It took a while, but with Gods help we made it. WHEW!!

SMILE God loves YOU!! Have a good day all.