Hopefully, the title enticed you to read further to explore just why I chose that heading for today’s meditation.
Every Monday, I get an email with a question to answer about my life in years past. My assignment is to author a small story that will be one of fifty-two narratives to be included in a small book. This week I was asked “Did I have a car in high school or college?” My response? Here is an abbreviated excerpt. “Well, I did not have a car in high school. My basic mode of transportation was by foot. I went to school across town – by foot. To church, by foot. Off to visit friends miles away, again, by foot. And when I used to laugh at how my dad would talk about walking to school in deep snow, sleet, rain or intense heat, his fascinating stories seemingly unbelievable and unreal, they became believable and my personal reality.”
There was a song during my late high school days and/or early college days, performed by the Intruders, “Cowboys to Girls.” I’m not going to address that part of the title but let me focus on “Cars to the Train.” I graduated from high school in the middle of my fourth year. I was hired by a local TV station in February of 1967 and made $70 a week! I was rolling in the dough! You can laugh. But without having any other bills, I was able to buy a 1965 Red Mustang for $1500. That was my first car and I drove it until my junior year in college. At that point, watching the higher paid employees and celebrities at work drive two-seater sports cars, I decided to by a brand-new Austin Healy. It was blue, a convertible model, and it only had room for two. Made in Europe, you would have thought it would endure rainy days without faltering. However, that was not the case. When it rained, I had to have my brother push me and I would pop the clutch to make it start. I loved that car, and it was the first of many foreign cars I owned: Mercedes, Jaguars, BMWs, and Volkswagens. Realizing the maintenance and repair costs, I often yearned for that first car, the 1965 Mustang. I had it going on with that model, and I did not even know it. I see the same model, well kept, being sold for thousands on top of thousands of dollars at televised auction shows.
At the age of thirty-six, I made the transition from “cars” to “the train,” licensed to preach in 1985 and ordained in 1990. I made the transition and was more focused on the latter. There were times that everybody under my roof has a car but me. But that was okay, I had “the train.” The train? Yes. The one we were allowed to even sing about in public school back in the days. It went like this: “De Gospel train’s a-comin’, I hear it just’ at han’, I hear de car wheels rumblin’, An’ rollin’ thro’ de lan’. Git on board, little children, Git on board, little children, Git on board, little children, Dere’s room for many a mo’.”
I have been blessed and charged to preach the word and after doing so for decades, I deem that more important than having a car. “The train,” the gospel train, is more important. As a matter of fact, I don’t have a car of my own today. I drive my wife’s car when I need to. Where is that 1965 Mustang? Just kidding! I’m glad to serve the Lord and you should be too, using the gift that He has blessed you with and by obeying His commission to make disciples! Serve Him today by your witness, your ways, your work, and the apparent evidence that you have been blessed by wisdom from the word of God. I’m depending on you, and the Lord is too! Have a great Thursday! Be blessed!
“For by the grace [of God] given to me I say to every one of you not to think more highly of himself [and of his importance and ability] than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has apportioned to each a degree of faith [and a purpose designed for service]. For just as in one [physical] body we have many parts, and these parts do not all have the same function or special use, so we, who are many, are [nevertheless just] one body in Christ, and individually [we are] parts one of another [mutually dependent on each other]. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to use them accordingly: if [someone has the gift of] prophecy, [let him speak a new message from God to His people] in proportion to the faith possessed; if service, in the act of serving; or he who teaches, in the act of teaching; or he who encourages, in the act of encouragement; he who gives, with generosity; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy [in caring for others], with cheerfulness.” (Romans 12:3-8 The Amplified Bible)
Committed to the climb,
Mark L. King