Not Derailed, Just Sidetracked!

Do train noises bother you? I remember when I was a kid we lived between the railroad tracks. Some people worry about living on the wrong side of the tracks. Well, we lived between two sets of track, each set having two sets of tracks. One was in front of our house and the other was behind our house and needless to say there was a lot of noise.

We were living in a small town called Scotia, California. Scotia was a company owned town. You had to work at the lumber mill or one of the businesses in town to live in a house in the town. We lived on Williams Street, which was the last street in town. To get to our street, you came into town and turned at the gas station. You would then come to a set of railroad tracks. When you crossed those tracks, you immediately crossed an old wooden bridge which spanned the log pond. As soon as you were across the bridge you would pass over another set of tracks. You would then go down a hill and around a curve. If you came off the bridge and down the hill fast enough on you bike you could coast the three quarters of a mile to our house. Behind our house, out the gate and about thirty feet lay another two sets of tracks.

Both sets of tracks in front of our house belonged to the lumber mill. They were used by the log trains and every day they would bring in loads of logs from the woods. Usually the trains would come in about 6:00 in the morning and then would run sometime during the day.

The tracks behind our house belonged to Southern Pacific Railroad. Trains ran on those tracks at anytime day or night. These were the trains that were so loud. It seemed like they were always stopping, starting, going forward and backing up. I never have been able to figure it out. Why did they have to do all of that maneuvering? Why did it always take them forever to do it?

The other thing I noticed, and I noticed this because we would play on them, was they would leave railroad cars setting in back of our house for days at a time. The train would pass by the house and then it would stop. It would back up onto a second track and the locomotive would just leave it setting there for days. This was a perfect opportunity for my brother and me to play on it, so of course we did. The whole time that train was setting there it didn’t accomplish one thing. It wasn’t good for anything but a playground for a bunch of boys. In fact, I noticed that to make a train totally ineffective all you had to do was to sidetrack it.

I have found out since that there is a little lever that can be moved and it will switch the track so that when the train comes it will go onto another track or a side track. Many times you can change the direction of that train without even the engineer realizing it because it can be done so gradually. You can make that train totally useless without ever destroying the train. You don’t have to derail it, just side track it!

I have had this happen so many times in my life. I am chugging along through life headed in the right direction. I am so excited about what I am doing for God and what God is doing in my life. Then, somewhere along the way, I find that I have been going in the wrong direction without ever realizing it. Something back down the road had gotten me off on a side track and I didn’t even realize it. I had become totally ineffective. I hadn’t backslidden, or even really sinned. I wasn’t derailed, just sidetracked!

I remember in one church we were pastoring an incident that took place that side tracked us. We had been working, praying, and fasting trying to have a move of God. We had taught some Bible Studies. We had worked with different people and had in fact just baptized our first converts. About this time one of the couples in the church met a couple from town. This couple introduced them to this “wonderful idea.” The couple from the church in turn introduced this “wonderful idea” to everyone in the church. Three of four months later I came to realize that we had all began to focus on this “wonderful idea” to the point we weren’t teaching Bible Studies, praying like we had been or fasting. All of our extra energy was spent on developing this “wonderful idea.” Not derailed, just sidetracked!

I have seen the enemy attack the family. He comes in causing problems and division until the total focus of the family is on the problems. They no longer pray together. They no longer read their Bibles together. They barely go to church together if they even go at all. Have they went out and committed sin? No! But they have become totally ineffective in the kingdom of God. Not derailed, just sidetracked.

Someone says or does something that hurts us. We take offense to it! We begin to think about how bad it is and how bad we have been treated. Pretty soon we have traveled way down a track that is taking us away from God. We aren’t derailed! We are still moving! However we are moving in the wrong direction. There is a cancer eating away at our spirit! We haven’t been derailed, just sidetracked!

God call Abraham out of Ur to a land that He would direct him to. He made him promises that boggled the natural mind. Oh the wonder of it all! Yet, right after arriving in this promised land a famine sets in and Abraham decides theer is no way they can survive. He packs up his family and off they go to Egypt. He is not derailed, just sidetracked!

While in Egypt he almost loses his wife, Sarah. She is the woman the promise is coming thru. While they were in Egypt, Sarah found a handmaid named Hagar. Later she decides Hagar should be the one to bear the promised child. Not derailed, just sidetracked!

On his way home from Egypt he has a falling out with his nephew Lot. He gives Lot a choice of where to go. Lot looks toward Sodom and it reminds him of Egypt. He chooses Sodom and his family is destroyed. Not derailed, just sidetracked!

Whether you are a Pastor or a Saint we all have a purpose and calling in our life. God has given each of us a promise and a blessing. If we continue to respond to that call and that purpose, God will fulfill His promise. The enemy desires to kill, steal and destroy each of us. He has found it to be so effective to destroy us by getting us sidetracked. He steals our purpose. He destroys our effectiveness. Eventually he kills us spiritually because we have gotten so far from where we are supposed to be. Not derailed, just sidetracked!

“Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” 2 Tim 1:9

Am I losing my effectiveness? Am I losing my power and authority with God? Have I allowed the enemy to overwhelm me and load me down with my past to the point I can no longer do what God has directed me to do? Have I become calloused to the needs of others to the point I am not longer moved emotionally by the cries of the lost and hurting? Am I just going through the motions of life because this is what I have always done and this is what I think is expected of me? Have I been sidetracked?

When was the last time I really prayed though to the Holy Ghost? When was the last time that I talked in tongues uncontrollably? When was the last time the Holy Ghost flowed through me like a river of Living Water? When was the last time I allowed the Holy Ghost to flush out of my soul the pride, the anger, and the bottled up emotions which have been caused by the failures and disappointments in life? I am talking about being sidetracked! Not derailed!

There will be more people lost who consider themselves good Christians because they have gone through the motions of what they considered pleasing to God. Yet, they have not walked in the Spirit! Their lives are spotless if examined for sin. Yet they have failed to know Jesus in the power of His resurrection. They have failed to walk in His Spirit, fulfilling the purpose God has placed in their lives. They have not been derailed, just sidetracked!

Jesus said there would be those who would come to him with a wonderful resume. Look at what we have accomplished! Look at the healings! Look at all the buildings and programs and accomplishments! Jesus response was, yet you and I don’t know each other. You were so busy going through the motions that you never realized that even though you were moving you were going in the wrong direction. Not derailed, just sidetracked.

I want to keep my eyes on Him! I am going to put Jesus Christ back in the seat of the Engineer of my life. I refuse to become sidetracked! I refuse to allow the enemy to blind me to my purpose in Christ Jesus. I will stay on track! If you go far enough on the wrong track your life could end up a train wreck!

Just a thought! God Bless.