Monday, March 19, 2007

I think of posts on the way to work

But by the time I get home, I totally forget what I wanted to write. But in case people think I have abandoned my blog, I will post about the old abandoned train depot on my way to work.
See, the road I live on used to be a railroad track. There was a train that would go up and down. I don't really know what it carried. Maybe some of the farmers goods would be loaded on it. I know that one of my neighbors remembers the times when she would carry milk and live chickens to the old country store where they would be sold and taken to feed the people of the nearest towns. But I don't know about the railroad.

Anyway, on my way to work I pass this old Depot. It is yellow and green and covered in ivy in the summer. Right now the ivy is dead, so it looks sadder than ever. It is beginning to crumble and fall apart, a memorial to an age completely gone by.

And what is even sadder is what is inside. The depot, according to the story that I heard, is filled with all the belongings of a woman who died years ago in a car accident. Her mother owns the old depot and refuses to sell or remove the items. All her daughters things just sit there, probably unmoved since the time that her life was ended and disassembled.

A sad story, yes, but what gets me thinking on my way back and forth from the daily grind is the question of what we are holding onto and what we are letting go of. A mother holding onto a daughter that is far beyond her grasp, letting go slowly of the life that was. I think and wonder about what I am holding too tightly to. What mouldering items I have packed away in my own personal crumbling depot; things that used to have value before I let them rot away in my heart.

And this one is for The Lions Den, but what about our churches? How have they become old creaky depots by which hundreds of cars pass every day, but no trains run to anymore. See a train depot that does not change itself to something else gets left behind in a world that runs on gasoline. Our churches are stuck in an old mindset, wearing a suit and tie, and opening and closing its doors. But the trains are not coming any more. Until our churches start changing their approach, opening up to a world that runs on something different, we won't see a vibrant place of life and growth. We will see the old depot filled with moldy baggage, going no where.


Well enough rambling for now. These are just my observations, and to show that I have not given up on my blog. I also have a new quilt in the making, so if I can find some time I will track its progress for you.