When I lived in Tokyo I used to ride the trains all around the city. I would head down do Shibuya train station and meet my friends at the statue of the dog. These large trains would rush down their tracks clacking away and safely deliver their passengers from one side of the city to the other. Trains are a safe way to travel, but imagine if the rails were out of alignment. In 1993 near Mobile Alabama that happened. The Big Bayou Canot Bridge had been struck by a tow boat, causing the rails to warp but not break. Since the rails didn’t break no warning signal was sent. The Amtrak passenger train hit the damaged rails at 70 mph and derailed. The first locomotive engine crashed into the bridge causing it to collapse. The next two locomotives and the first five cars flipped into the water, and the diesel fuel tanks ruptured bursting into flame. The accident killed 47 people and injured 103. All because the rails were warped out of alignment. (Big Bayou Canot rail accident – Wikipedia)
Being out of alignment is dangerous, and being out of alignment with God has caused far more damage than that Big Bayou Canot Bridge accident. God made us in his image, but our rails were nocked out of alignment, they were warped when Adam and Eve ate of that forbidden fruit. Yet, even when we make Jesus our Lord and Boss often times we are still out of alignment. The world likes to nock us out of alignment, it wants to warp our tracks. I mean, have you ever been chugging along with life and then all of a sudden everything is derailed? Your marriage is struggling, your plagued with worry and fear, your finances are out of control, and your kids have gone off the deep end.
Some of these things are simply the broken world rearing its ugly head, but some of them are because we hit a warp in the tracks. Our alignment with God has been shifted. We were designed to live in communion with God, to live according to his principles, and when we don’t our life goes awry. So how do we get aligned? What is the answer? The answer is God’s word, and God’s presence.
God’s Word gives us the knowledge to live his way. It shows us: who God is, how we were designed to live, what happens when we don’t follow that design, and how to follow it. But God’s presence gives us the power and ability to do what God’s Word teaches. For this blog I want to focus on God’s word. We must align our thinking to who God is, and what true success looks like. Your responsibility is to get into God’s presence, and let his power overwhelm you.
One last thought before I wrap this up. Right now I’m dealing with some Plantar Fasciitis. The Physical Therapist I am seeing gave me some stretches to do, and I have to do them everyday. The Doctor told me that the most important thing for healing is being consistent with my stretches. Why wouldn’t mental and spiritual healing need an equal, if not greater, amount of discipline? I have read from multiple Christian counselors about the healing power of meditating 15 minutes a day on God’s word. Not just reading it but dwelling on it and letting it soak into the pores of your mind. We will not find the alignment we are looking for if we won’t be committed to giving God the time to rearrange the bent and twisted synapses in our own mind.
So we will start simply in the book of Romans. If we want to have our lives aligned to God’s truth there is no better place to start. I look forward to going on this journey with you.
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