I loved watching my youngest son, Noah, play when he was little. One of his favorite things to do was to play with the train set. He spent hours carefully connecting the magnetic cars to the engines and pulling the long trains around the curves and over the hills of our wooden train set. He would often get so caught up in his imagination that he seemed to be in a different world.
I remember doing my housework one day and being frightened by shouts coming from the other end of the hallway. I immediately dropped what I was doing and ran to my toddler’s aid. When I reached Noah’s bedroom doorway, there was my little man reaching over the train table and holding onto Thomas the Tank Engine who was dangling off the top of the mountain. All of the box cars and their freight were in danger of being derailed along with the engine who frantically cried for help. I breathed a sigh of relief and chuckled to myself when I realized that my son was not in danger. He had simply gotten carried away pretending he was the little engine who had accidentally gotten off track.
Lately I’ve been feeling like that little engine. I have recently found myself off track in many different areas. Somehow, I have started pulling too many “boxcars” and I’m beginning to losing steam. I find myself struggling to keep on schedule with my load and feeling like my wheels are spinning as I try to haul too heavy of a load up the mountain.
Thankfully, I have a God who has been holding onto me through my struggling so that I haven’t completely fallen over the edge of the mountain yet. He’s been prompting me to shift my load and watching over me, ready to catch me if I start to derail.
As I seek God’s assistance, I have a feeling that there will be some “freight” that I need to drop off to lighten my load. There will probably be some “boxcars” that I’m going to have to disconnect from. My schedule will surely be changed, and there may be some stops that will no longer be assigned to me.
Whatever changes must be made in my future to help me get back on track, the One who can see the whole “railway system” will help me work things out. I need only keep my eyes on Him, listen for His plan and follow His direction. He knows the right track for me.