I like it Fast!

Last night I got my first Lionel train set. I felt like a kid at Christmas time! I’ve always loved train sets. So a few days ago I ordered one that I could set up with my little Christmas town.

I set up the track last night and tried out the train right away. I love it! Betsy and I both took turns running it, but neither of us ran it at its top speed for fear of derailing it! Well this morning word spread and Lindsey and Joseph wanted to see the new train. I was delighted to show them. I’d read in the reviews that this model was fairly sturdy and I gave them free reign to try driving it. Lindsey went first and right away she pushed the throttle up all the way. I watched with excited curiosity, wondering if it would fall off the track. It stayed on and Joseph took his turn. He too, revved it up to the max and the kids squealed with delight at how funny it looked going so fast. I was excited too, because the high speed had caused the liquid smoke I’d put in the stack to start coming out in little white clouds. We played together for a while before the kids had to go up for breakfast. Later that morning I found Chick (Alexis) and brought her down to see the train too. She liked it and I decided to offer her a chance at driving it. As soon as she was at the controls she revved it up to its top speed and watched with joy as it sped past us. She soon complained that it was loud and reduced the speed thus reducing the noise level. She couldn’t stand it for too long though and would turn it back up again. She repeated this complaint at the noise and again turned it down. After only a minute she turned it back up as she looked over at me and said “I like it fast.”

In my responsible and experienced adult brain I could not bring myself to make the train go fast. I was certain that if I did it would derail. I wasn’t really afraid of it breaking, but I just couldn’t get beyond my sensibleness.

³ And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 18:3

Being responsible, practical, etc. isn’t bad, but does our attained wisdom and intelligence interfere with His heart for our life? When the Lord starts to move upon your heart for something, do you rev the train up full throttle? Or do you show up with a ten paged list of all the reasons why things won’t work out? The wisdom of God is foolishness to man. Giving your life away for someone else doesn’t make sense. Yet I still desire to, even though I know there’s a chance the train could go flying off the track, I want to be like my siblings and push it to its limit. For I know that it’s at that place, I will discover that just like my new train, the Creator designed it to run that way. So we need not fear what He’ll ask us to be, because He created us for it. Then we too can say with Chick, “I like it fast!”