,A vibration silently shook the steel rail beneath my foot. I stepped back and wondered if a train was coming.

After a hot day on the beach, I was in a hurry to get home. Taking a shortcut meant crossing tracks where there was no barrier. “Whoooo, whooo”—a train whistle sounded softly from around the bend. 

“Listen. There’s a train coming. Hurry! You can make it,” my mind whispered wanting to beat it across the tracks. Feeling a little foolish, I stepped back to wait.

Some teenaged boys laughed and yelled, “Come on, chicken!” as they raced the approaching danger. My heart ached as I remembered Mike, my old high school buddy who raced a train and lost.

Have you ever tried to race life’s trains? As a young adult, I did. Warning whistles of sin or evil blew deep inside my mind tempting me to ignore them as society laughed and yelled, “C’mon, if it feels good do it!”

Drinking. Sex. Men pretending to care, then ghosting me when I cared too much. Self-respect lost. Failed attempts to manipulate. Lies. Relationship killers. Danger often approached from places I could not see. Yet the thrill of racing to acquire a momentary pleasure or accomplish my goals made me ignore warnings oblivious to consequences. As a result, I hurt myself–time after time until I finally gave up doing things my way.

Proverbs 1:33 revealed an alternative. “But he who listens to me shall live securely And shall be at ease from the dread of evil.” God’s Word gripped my soul and started pulling me back from acting on feelings and making serious, perhaps deadly mistakes.

Stopping long enough to pray and study the Bible isn’t always convenient; but cultivated over time, this daily habit sets our priorities straight and keeps them that way. Knowing God and His promises helps us stay in the safety of His hand. And, accusations of being a chicken no longer matter. Some things should scare us.

Looking through our Father’s eyes gives us eternal perspective. He can see around those bends. He knows exactly what the future holds and gives us the wisdom we need to make good long-term choices. And, that helps us live securely. That gives us peace and self-respect.

How do you make choices? Do you listen to friends and the popular dictates of culture?  Regardless of politics, I wonder if that’s what those being arrested for their actions at the Capitol building did. Perhaps rather than acting on feelings or bad advice, they should have stopped, looked, and listened to the One who could have helped them make better decisions.