Always Expect A Train

In our attempt to enjoy Alaska’s short summer, my husband and I have been enjoying biking along the inlet on the Coastal Trail.  

Above the first overpass in the upper left hand corner is a sign that catches our attention each time we enter the tunnel: “Always Expect a Train.”

Yesterday as we embarked upon the rainy, windy trail those words hit me differently as I was still pondering the Sunday message from earlier in the day on Daring Faith.

To begin a bike journey with heightened awareness to expect a train at any moment keeps one on his or her toes.  The thought made me wonder how differently I might approach each day were there to be a sign posted next to my bed stating, “Always Expect a Miracle.” 

I doubt David woke up on the morning that he would look back at as the day he took out Goliath, expecting the day to hold a miracle.  However, David obviously wasn’t opposed to the notion when God filled him with courage on that momentous day: he was prepared.

We find Gideon, the least in his family, threshing wheat in a winepress cowering in fear of the oppressive Midianites, when the angel of the Lord appeared.  The angel of the Lord was able to see past Gideon’s lack of faith, his genealogy and his fear when he addressed him for the person he was somewhere deep within, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” (Judges 6:12)

Daniel did not wake up one morning with the knowledge that he would be sharing a den with lion’s that very night. We aren’t privy to the inner struggles Daniel had to work through or if he simply trusted God to rescue him from the lions.  

When a person is living fully in faith, perhaps the byproduct is a readiness and an ongoing expectation of miracles.  

I wouldn’t know. 

I find myself more familiar with the insecurities of Gideon than with the fearless faith of David and Daniel.  Thank the Lord for his ability to see past each of our insecurities into the hidden parts of the heart where we genuinely long for God to do through us that which we are unable to do on our own.

How differently we might approach our day knowing that we are both prepared for and expectant of a miracle.  And how much more differently we might approach life knowing that WE might be the vessel through whom the miracle might flow.

Feeding five thousand men with five loaves and two fish would no longer sound like an impossibility but rather a miracle we were eagerly expecting from Jesus.  The paradigm would switch from living in fear to living in expectation that our God can do what He says He can do; and that we can be a part of what He is doing.

We have to be ready for the train which means we have to be looking and listening for the train.

It’s time to stop living in fear.  It’s time to start living as prepared, sold out, unwavering disciples expecting miracles in unexpected, unpredictable, non impressive places.

Stay the Course…

Sheila