Monday, April 29, 2013

The Man At The End Of The Train




I recently took a trip with my mother and my aunt to Europe.  During the trip we made several public transit mistakes.  The first mistake included getting on the wrong train.  A few days later, not learning our lesson from our earlier mistake, we boarded a wrong bus headed in the wrong direction.  Even after these two mistakes, on the last day of the trip, we got on the right bus but got off at the wrong stop.

The miracle, after each mistake, was that there was, miraculously, someone at the end there to help us.  At the train stop, for example, my mother went up to last person on the train and began trying to explain our plight. It literally was the last stop of the train, and we had gone miles and miles in the wrong direction.  But, it just so happened that the man at the end of the train was an American living in Paris who spoke English, and was able to immediately understand and help us.  We just needed to ask for help.

A few days later we repeated our mistake.   This time, we were in Italy not France.  This time it wasn't a train it was a bus.  When we realized we were on the wrong bus, it was too late to change and the bus took us to the train station.  But, again, not only was there a stranger there at the train station to help us, the Russian stranger we meet also understood English, and helped us find our way.  He was the only person left in the train station, the only one.   The young Russian went out of his way to help us and even went with us, for most of our journey, to help us find where we needed to go.   We just needed to ask for help.

On the last day of the trip, we finally paid attention to the signs on the bus and boarded the right bus going to our destination.  However, we missed our bus stop and ended up at the airport.   From the airport, not knowing what bus to take, we started a long walk in the direction of our destination. As we walked it began to rain. Just as the rain started, a shuttle bus, going directly to our hotel, just happened to drive by us at the right moment, and graciously pulled over when we waved it down.
Without these Samaritans at the critical junctures on our journey, we would have been left in some serious predicaments.  It would be easy to wave off the encounters and pure coincidence and luck, but the blessing that came from help from others was also, unmistakably, help from Heaven as well.

There are many lessons that can be learned from these experiences.  Miracles, Samaritans, asking for help, answers to prayers are at the top of the list.  But perhaps the greatest lesson I learned is just how easy it is to get lost by getting off the right path.

More often than not truth is a very narrow path that, without divine direction, is easy to depart from. It is so narrow that, sometimes, the slightest altering of facts or subtle shifts in attitude and opinion can divert us from truth and send us down the wrong path.  Misinformation and misunderstandings are just as dangerous as falsehood and lies.  This is true, not because the information is any more or any less evil, but because regardless of the intention, when information isn’t right, it can lead us in the wrong direction.

Remember just because something isn’t evil, doesn’t mean it isn’t wrong. 

Mistakes aren't always sins, but they are still wrong choices. We can choose to get on the wrong train. 

And just because we didn’t know something is wrong doesn’t make it right. False can never be true, right can never be wrong, regardless if we didn’t know or believe it. Many people marry the wrong person for the wrong reasons, for example, because there was no resistance and they missed the warning signs along the way. The honest in heart seek guidance to know right from wrong, they do not ignore it or openly rebel against it, The honest at heart are humble enough to ask for help and humble enough to accept advice. 

Maybe now is the time to interrogate yourself and ask the right questions.  What am I doing that is wrong? Am I on the wrong path?  Who can I ask for help?

Asking the right questions can help us to recognize that there are things we are doing that are wrong and we may not even know it.  When we give wrong answers on tests we rarely intentionally chose to give wrong answers. We simply make mistakes. We can easily mistake right from wrong and choose to choose what is wrong. Sometimes we just choose, by mistake, to get on the wrong train.  

Life is as much about learning how to avoid mistakes as it is about learning from mistakes when we make them. Righteousness is a combination of resisting and repenting of sin. Righteousness is like a kind of safe driving.  And safe driving includes defensive driving, a skill of dodging other drivers and obstacles.  Therefore, driving, like so many other things in life, requires skill and strategy. Traveling, for example, also requires skill and strategy. Travel includes places to see and places to avoid.

As it is with most things in life, in order for things to run smoothly things require effort and planning. Goals are a gold mine of good planning.

Good travel requires good decision making, sometimes on the fly, but more often with well thought out considerations and careful planning.  Successful trips usually require careful planning and while some success comes from last minute or spur of the moment decisions, most trips are the result of countless hours of rate checking, map studying, budgeting, forecasting, and adjusting, because failing to plan ahead ruins more trips than the rain.  If fact someone once said there is no such thing as bad weather only poor planning.   Think of all the effort we put into house plans, wedding plans, and travel plans. If we put so much effort into planning these important but temporal events in our lives, why do some put so little thought and attention into dating and marriage? Our success rate in marriage is revealing. Our marriage failure rate is indicative of something, that something is wrong with the process.

Like those who try to wing a trip with poor planning, those who try to wing a relationship are also usually disappointed.  Winging it means doing without forethought or planning.  Winging it often includes unnecessary risk. Winging it also includes refusing to ask for directions or help. Because our culture places too much emphasis on falling in love, instead of building a loving eternal relationship, the elements of chance, risk taking and gambling are glamorized over spiritual guidance, prayful consideration and direction, and honest introspection and careful observation.

When all is said and done, however, there are some things you just can’t plan for.  We can make emergency preparations for calamities, but we rarely can forecast and plan for them.  Many of the calamities in marriage are the result of a change that comes over people, often many years after the wedding day. Just as there can be a mighty change of heart for the good, there can also be a mighty change of the heart towards iniquity.  Just as the spiritual mighty change of heart may be more of a growing process than an event, those who grow closer and closer to iniquity often change undetected and unnoticeable over time.  The drastic change in their character seems remarkably drastic and sometimes shocking when it is revealed, but usually the change happened slowly over time.

But, like cancer, by the time the wickedness or negative changes surfaces, it is hard to reverse the damage or stop it.  Those who rejoice in iniquity usually don’t care at that point or won’t admit at that point that they are doing anything wrong anyway.  They have seared consciences that have gradually and slowly and imperceptibly gone dark over time, and their rebellious refusal to repent and to change is the result of years and years of denial not a dramatic change or single event. Those who refuse to change and repent now simply find more joy in rejoicing in iniquity.

No matter how giddy they may be, they do not feel real joy, or the eternal joy that is promised in scriptures.  Wickedness never was happiness. They may feel a sense of merriment, however. They can now eat, drink and be merry, because it is so very easy to be a sinner and it feels like so much fun to sin. 

But the scriptures teach us to rejoice not in iniquity but to rejoice in truth. To understand what it means to rejoice not in iniquity, may require that we understand and recognize when we or others rejoice in iniquity. When we celebrate evil things we rejoice in iniquity. When we enjoy things that are wrong or enjoying doing what is wrong we rejoice in iniquity. When we refuse to admit when we know something is wrong or choose to remain ignorant to actions and behaviors that are wrong we rejoice in iniquity. When we deny that right or wrong even exist in the first place or deny the clear facts that something is wrong, we rejoice in iniquity and we are dangerously in the wrong and are heading in the wrong direction, we may even be on the road towards denying the very reality and mission of Jesus Christ. 

Just because something tastes good, looks good, smells good, or feels good, doesn’t means that it is right. Just because we enjoy doing something that is wrong doesn’t make it right.

Remember false can never be true, wrong can never be right, regardless if we didn’t know or believe it.

But there is a miracle available to us after every mistake that we make. There is someone at the end waiting to help us.  Even if it feels like it is literally our last stop, and we have gone miles and miles in the wrong direction, there is someone there who understands and can help us.  We just need to ask Him for help.