Where Are You Headed? (09/13/2026)

This week, as I drove around Sioux City, Iowa visiting family members and taking care of family business, I heard a train whistle. It not only startled me because it was on a track under the bridge I was crossing, so I hadn’t seen it first, it also took me back over 60 years to my childhood in Waycross, Georgia. Our town was named Waycross because of all the railroad lines that crossed tracks there. Train whistles were an everyday occurrence multiple times daily, in fact. And I found myself doing what I used to do, asking the question out loud, “Where is everyone going?” Habits are hard to break, even when one hasn’t succumbed to it in ages.

I can remember, as a young kid wondering out loud where all those trains were going and where all those people were headed. Was it for work or pleasure? Was it to return to a military post, to tend to an ill relative, or to go on a honeymoon? Was the trip far or just to the next town down the line? Were passengers riding in the seat cars, did they have overnight berths, or did they have an actual room?

As you can see, my penchant for questions began early in life. But seriously, don’t you ever wonder when you see a passenger train why the people are aboard and where they are headed? And when you’re out driving and surrounded by cars going somewhere, don’t you wonder where everyone is headed?

Our lives are our spiritual journeys, I believe. I ask myself frequently, “Where are you headed, girl?”  I like to think I am headed in the right direction, in a life-giving and life sustaining direction. I like to believe that the things I am doing now like tending to my relationship with the LORD and with my sisters and brothers are steps along the way. I’m not earning my salvation; Jesus did that for me. But am I allowing the journey to inform me, to conform me, and to transform me as Jesus wants?

I like to believe that doing right even when it isn’t easy and thinking of others and their needs will make a difference in my journey, in that it makes a difference in me.  My destination isn’t a place on the map but rather my LORD, and I hope at the end of my journey, I have become the one He created me to be and the one He called me to be, and the one He graces me to be. How about you?

As we begin this week with extra time on our hands because it is the Sabbath, let us use it to ask ourselves where are we headed. Let us look at our direction, our actions, our activities. Are they going to get us there? Are they taking us astray?

Every day is a new day. “Behold, I make all things new.”  Let us trust in the LORD’s words. Let us strike out once again – headed home – headed to our LORD.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well,