Someone told me this: A train is similar to life. As a passenger, we ride day in and day out in order to reach our destinations. With other passengers, we alight at different train stations. Sometimes, we get off at the same station because we have the same destination. Then we ride the train again and travel to different places. Sometimes, we return to a station and stay in this place for the rest of our lives. Or we stay in a place for a certain length of time and move to a different place together.

Comparing a train to life is a beautiful analogy to me. I believe there are four main beautiful points in this.

Train Operator

Whatever happens in our train rides, I believe there is someone or something that is influencing our decisions whether to alight from a train and stay in a place or move out and board a train.

When we pay for our train ticket and board the train, we must trust the train operator, the engineer, or the conductor to take us to where we want to go. The train operator knows the railroad better than anyone else. In our lives, God is the train operator, the engineer, or the conductor. We have to trust God to direct us to our destinations.

Meeting People

The best thing about traveling in trains is that God allows us to meet different people. He allows us to alight at different stations. Then He determines how long we will stay there whether hours or years. In each station, we will interact with different kinds of people. Some will choose to ride with us. Some will not. We may choose to stay with them. We may decide to part.


The choice is ours. The way we behave in a train and the actions we make toward others will determine the kind of life we will have. We may choose to sit or stand in our favorite spots engrossed in a book, a SmartPhone, and a pair of earphones. On the other hand, we may choose to sit wherever is available. We may also opt to give their seats to an older person, a disabled person, or a female. We may choose to engage a stranger beside us in a conversation as well.



Opportunities

Each station has a train schedule that we have to follow or else we will miss an opportunity. It may be an opportunity to meet a person, receive a blessing, witness an event, or experience something unforgettable. Or maybe, we will not miss any opportunity at all because we are not meant to grab it. It is only one of the options that we can choose from and a guide for us to discern the right direction to take.


Direction

Our inability to see the future is the reason why God needs to direct us. We may know where we want to go, how much it costs, and who we are with. But we do not know the full course of our train ride. But if we believe in the Train Operator, then there is no need to know everything. We must only trust Him that whenever we alight from a train and board a train, we will reach the best and the right destination for us.


Pondering on my life as a train ride, I wrote this simple prayer a few weeks ago.

"In this life, we are both boarding and alighting at different train stations. I hope that at one of my stations, whether my first, mid, or last, God will allow me to meet you there and He will send us to different stations until we reach our last station together."

I am talking about you whether you are a beloved family member, a good friend, a great co-worker, an amazing teacher, a future life partner, or an interesting stranger. May we all have the best train rides together.

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