Article December 6, 1999 Issue

WHICH TRAIN ARE YOU ON?

Sharon S. Jeffrey

A friend and I were recently discussing the unreliability of the physical senses. She pointed out that if you were looking out the window of a train that was standing perfectly still, and the train on the tracks next to you began to move, you would have the sensation of going forward or backward, depending upon the direction the moving train was headed. If you depended only upon what you were seeing, it would be almost impossible to determine which train was moving—unless you looked out the other window. Then it would be easy to see that your train hadn't been moving at all—the sensation of movement was simply an illusion!

This conversation got me to pondering what "train of thought" my thinking had been taking lately over a couple of issues. Was I believing an illusion—that God isn't in control of His universe and that therefore I could be victimized by fear or lack, illness or injury?

As I asked myself that question, I reminded myself that the problems and challenges we face from day to day, whether small or seemingly insurmountable, are not a part of God, pure good. So they cannot be a part of our real selfhood, the image and likeness of God. They are a part of the illusion that there is "another train"—a power apart from God—over there, as it were.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Hoof steps and little footsteps in the way