Around a curve

While we were in Wisconsin we took a train ride.  We paid $2 extra to sit in the caboose. (It was well worth it!).  In the caboose we had the benefit of the train wisdom stenciled on the walls.  I was drawn to "Always be prepared for slack action." I didn't know what it meant but I had that "there is a sermon in that" feeling.   So I took my picture with it.

 

 

Can you tell I'm still learning the photo functions of the phone?
 

I did an internet search for a definition of slack action.  Apparently it is the free movement of a car before it transmits motion to an adjoining coupled car.  The free movement is a result of the loosely coupled cars.  The cars are loosely coupled to enable the train to bend around curves.  But often when the pull from the locomotive to move the train begins to move car to car, there might be a slight jerk as it comes to the next car.  Hence if you are not alert you might stumble or lose your balance.

This morning as I reflected on a surprising curve in our journey, I was reminded of that "little jerk" in the information on slack action.  If I am not alert to these curves in my life journey and do some planning I might stumble and lose my balance in my life journey.

When you look at a coupler on a train it almost looks too loose to keep the cars together, especially when you see the movement.  Yet these couplers have held train cars connected for hundreds of years.  So I need to develop a "coupler" hold onto God, tight enough to stay on track but loose enough to survive the curves of life.

So my journey may see unusual movement, but I am sure of God's love and the direction the "train".  Jus s morning in my "surprise me" method of bible study, I flipped to I John.  I was using my familiar friend of my Bible collection and had underlined "know" in I John.  Wow, it's in I John a lot!

So I know God loves me and directs my life.  My job is to be prepared for the surprises, the little "jerks" in the journey, the slack action, so I don't stumble and lose balance.

So

Live alert

And stay

Coupled to God to

Keep balance in life's journey