From The Backwoods Pew

Bulletin Board

Life’s Railway

It was a hot day. Maybe hot isn’t the right word. Water boils at 212° F, if my science memory still works. That would be somewhere beyond hot, and the farmer’s pond looked like it was boiling. The thermometer at the local bank had withdrawn into the shade of the lobby and even the birds refused to fly! Yet there we were, driving across a farmer’s field to cruise a tract of timber. The sale was to be the next day; and due to various events, we had not found time to get the fieldwork done until this day. Thus, my partner and I stepped out of the truck into a stifling August heat wave.

It takes good timber to make someone do this, or a really good buffet with country cooking close by. Both were present in this case. The timber was well above average: loblolly pine, tall and straight. But underneath grew an assortment of vines, saplings, and bushes that seemed impenetrable. With the heat of the day pressing upon us, we knew it would be a long, hot struggle in the brush. Once in the woods, the brush would not allow visibility beyond a few feet, and no breeze could move through it. A two-hour job pushed into five, and thoughts of the buffet were replaced with hopes of seeing our loved ones again.

It was in the midst of this dense jungle that we came upon what we thought, at first, had to be a mirage.

It was a railroad. Honest! A narrow-gauge set of rails went right through the dense brush under those massive pines. Once we accepted this oddity, we marked our spot and began to push through the bushes to see where they went. Our hope was that they would “spit-us-out” at the truck. But instead, they brought us to the next mirage, a pushcart. It was right there in the middle of that dense jungle. The pushcart had trees growing up through it, as did the tracks. Incredible, the railway at one time had to be wide open to allow such passage. What had happened?

Thus says the Lord: “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls.”—Jeremiah 6:16

God’s people had turned away from following him, so God called to them through his prophet Jeremiah, asking them to return to him. The path they were on was one of destruction, a path that was leading them away from him, and away from his love. While we can marvel at their wanton abandon-

Antill

ment of God,a God who loved and protected them,we need not look too far to see that we also stand in the same danger. We too, can lose sight of the path God has for us. Failing to follow God’s clear path allows the weeds and brush to grow; and like the old railway, when the pushcart stopped moving, the path began to disappear. As the activity slowed, nature sought to regain its lost ground and ever so slowly, it recaptured the railway, hiding the path that had provided a means of access. Actively following God keeps the paths of our lives clear and open. Discerning his will in decision-making is so much easier when we are on paths that are cleared.

Flash ahead some 10 years from that hot day. On the eastern coast of North Carolina, pushing through a knee-deep swamp, back in the middle of nowhere, another strange railway sight met my eyes. Growing through several trees was an old rail, still complete with attached iron spikes. It could be followed for about 60 feet before it went underwater. If you go back in time many years, early in the 20th century and even before, you will find that often folks would lay out rails as a means of moving logs out of the swamps. They would put down cross ties or timbers for support, and lay down the rails on top of them, whatever they needed to do to get a railcar into the swamp for loading. Just this past summer, I found another section of old rail, lying in the brush along a river bed.

Here’s what happens to those old paths, the paths that God has cleared for us to walk down. These are the ones he wants to stroll down with us. The King James version of Jeremiah 6 lists them with three “Buts.”

But they said we will not walk in it (verse 16). They felt their way was better than God’s.

But they said we will not listen (verse 17). They refused to hear his voice.

But rejected it (verse 19). They made a conscious decision to turn away from God.

Without the activity, the paths that were so clear began to be covered over. Folks forgot where they were; the promises of God were not shared; his mercy not remembered, and a generation was lost. Nature abhors a vacuum. It will put a god in your life and mine if we turn our backs on the Lord. We will lose sight of the path; and when tough times come, it is with anguish that we cry out to a God we abandoned somewhere back in the brush.

But it is not all lost. The way can be cleared. The path can be restored, opened up for us to follow.

How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!—Psalm 119:9

Immerse yourself in God’s Word and the pathways will be clear; easy to follow, and you will find pleasant company along the way. SLT