Vinita Trains

 ‘Waiting on a train’ is a good excuse in my hometown if you don’t use it every day. No one questions it, because it happens to everyone. Trains are a fact of life in Vinita, Oklahoma, a railroad town built at the junction of two train tracks in 1871.

Every citizen of Vinita, young or old, rich or poor, male or female, laborer or businessman, has learned to live his life around the train schedule. When a train is on the track across a main street in Vinita, all traffic stops.

There have been several train-vehicle fatalities in Vinita so the railroads have invested in gated flashing alarm systems at most intersections.

 Some drivers still want to drive around the gate arms meant to keep them from being hit by a train. When the lights start flashing and the arm begins to lower, even I groan and am sorely tempted to step on the gas and race to beat the train, rather than slow down and wait 5 minutes for the 10-mile-long train to pass. Or maybe I see that I might be able to make it to the next corner if I rush, so I make a sharp right, gas it but by the time I get there, the gate has started coming down there too, so I have to wait anyway.

The very thing that is meant to preserve lives has become a great source of irritation to most townspeople.

Paul said in II Timothy3:16 nkjv, “ All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”

In our busy life we have this tendency to bypass spending time reading and studying the word of God.  And then we find ourselves not living by what it says.

When the alarms flash in your conscience and the gate arm starts to drop, is your first thought, “How can I find a way around this without getting caught?” That should indicate it’s time to see what the Bible has to say about what you should do, not what you can get away with.

God sent His Word to direct us, to preserve us, to protect us, to live by.

One Reply to “Vinita Trains”

  1. Thank you Lavon – I used to use the trains a way to tell me to slow down. My life sometimes go through fast I forget to enjoy the special parts. Have you ever been driving somewhere and then all of a sudden think – “I don’t remember going on that off ramp”) I always used the trains for a chance to stop take a breath and thank the Lord for what he has given me.

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