One Track Mind

by Katie Loveless

Ihave fond memories of my childhood playground on Arista Mountain in West Virginia. My grandparents lived there, and we visited often. The memories are so prominent for me that I can remember the backdrop of the cool blue sky that hovered like a canopy, a dinosaur-like mountainside by the clothesline, and the sounds of singing birds like wallpaper in my mind.

There was ample opportunity to explore and shake hands with nature. Walking to the forks of the road with my siblings and grandfather is one of many fond memories as that all these years later, I still stand in the flow of His goodness and trust Him to wash me and make me clean. It’s a miracle that He can take the potsherds of my life and make them beautiful and functional again. we interacted with the lush landscape. It is a place where the power to choose is outwardly evident. In fact, it was during one of those walks that my grandfather talked with me about the temporary nature of the human life. He was a new Christian and eagerly commented on how the human life is like vapor that disappears, grass that withers, and a puff of smoke that wafts away. My young mind whirred to connect the dots at the forks of the road in that moment, but the conversation remains with me to this day.

I think about Job and how he sat among ash and broken pottery as he was reeling from grief, unspeakable loss, and physical affliction (see Job 2:8). I consider how he lanced his own weeping wounds with shards of broken pottery to bring relief. We are not so different. We try to foster healing in the necrotic places of our hearts by introducing them to the broken places and we marvel why it doesn’t work. Neither one can cure the other. Brokenness alone won’t heal the stench of death in me. I need my brokenness and humility to be coupled with God’s power and grace like a hitch to get anywhere at all.

There isn’t time to waste on indecision. Entertaining doubt is an expense much too extravagant. We can’t afford it. With my childhood sprinkled with poverty at times, I understand the importance of making even a little count and stretch. Little is much when God is in it.

As I pray for bystanders refusing grace’s invitation, I consider the frailty of my own decisions. I simply can’t make good ones without God’s continual aid. It’s a miracle I ever chose to surrender my life to God at all. It’s a miracle

As my heart is joined with His, I am in a position to make better choices, more redemptive ones. I begin to meditate on His goodness with the stamina of a one-track mind like a locomotive. And with that, my mind is kept in perfect peace. The peace is not a stagnant pond with life ebbing away. Instead, it is a river that is moving, productive, life-giving, and never will run dry.

I hear a train whistle blaring near my home as I write. Have you ever wondered what it takes for a train to switch tracks or make a turn among two divergent paths? A train conductor cannot make a detour independently. He relies on the flip of a switch to elevate the chosen path. This process means that the old, forgotten path is seemingly recessed in the earth, and the new, chosen path is elevated, making it the only way to go.

The Holy Spirit will do that for you. He will be your switch operator if you allow it. He will elevate righteousness for you and make that path the only way to go. He will give you a one-track mind. “Righteousness shall go before him, and shall make His footsteps our pathway,” (Psalm 85:13, NKJV).