Smacked in the Face with a Train

Today, God gave me a train.

What?! No, I'm not crazy (well, technically, anyways ;)), and I don't mean that God gave me a train with a bow on it wrapped up on my front doorstep, or that it suddenly rained down trains in Ark City, America. What I mean is that my Creator,once again, gave me exactly what I needed, when I needed it.

It's been a crazy week! Amazing, not so hot, and everything in between. Today was especially crazy in my conversation with God department. Nothing special really happened, it was just one of those days. My family isn't the most supportive of faith-not just mine, but any kind really-and I've been getting very annoyed with little comments and the way we live our lives. They can't see what I see, and instead of striving for more, they settle for living selfishly like most of us do....but thats a whole other ramble ;) For now, back to the train:

Tonight I was feeling...empty, I guess. Because of the whole family thing, and because I haven't had the best of luck with my friends lately, I hadn't really talked to God. I did the prayers I have been doing daily as a sacrifice for the upcoming TEC retreat-but not with any kind of heart. Believe me, they were just words. I did them first thing this morning so I could get them over with too. Basically, I was trying to hide from the one who knows everything. Dumb, right? And I decided that I didn't really need to talk to Him-I could handle my spiritual life just like I'd always done-on my own. That dang human thing....:)

So on my way home I got stopped by a train. Nothing too unusual-this happens all the time on the way to my house from town. Except usually, the trains last two or three minutes, max. Then the train moves on, and my crazy life resumes. Normally I appreciate these little "breaks." I can listen to some music, sit still for a second without thinking about driving, and just breathe. But tonight, I wasn't such a fan. I just wanted to get home, crawl in my bed, and escape. Don't worry...God had other plans. You see, when you have a few moments of silence between you and the maker of the universe, it's kind of impossible to avoid Him. God always seems to be able to break that silence without saying anything! So after ten minutes of this awkward silence, I got mad. I'd been having such a great couple of weeks with my faith-why did it have to go like this? Why must I always do it on my own?! Another ten minutes of anger went by before I decided I was going to try to fix it. "Fine God, I'll do night prayer. It won't be heartfelt, but at least it will be something." And, as you would imagine, night prayer ensued-in my truck at a train stop. You betcha, I'm Catholic. This took about....ten minutes. So this train stayed stopped for THIRTY minutes! He had put an extension on the 2-3 minute train wait so that I would finally give up and talk to Him. Greatest part was, as soon as I said "Amen," the train began to move again :)

The rest of my short drive home, I was blessed with songs on the radio from Switchfoot, Matthew West, and Tenth Avenue North-three of my favorite artists ever! So....win, win :) I took the long way home, praising Him, and thanking Him for cracking my stubborn shell.

People, don't try to avoid God. There's no point-he already knows everything anyways. But if you're human and do decide to be stubborn occasionally...just be prepared for a smack in the face with a train :)

Choo choo, Father..........choo choo!