Every VBS we have done at our church involves the part of searching for God Sightings. I like this focus so much it is something we do on a weekly basis in Children Church. I believe it is a great habit to look and see where God is at work around us. With me, I have found that He will often point something out so He can have a chat. For example, take these simple train tracks.
I pass over these exact tracks every time I go to work. I have felt the desire to stop and take a picture or two and, in those moments, I allow my hearing to focus on Him. In discussing a totally different matter with my teenage daughter, I mentioned Jesus taught by parables and how He used common things to illustrate a Godly concept.
I realized I knew very little about trains and what would cause them problems such as derailment. According to slate.com, 46.7% are caused by track defects and 28.7% by human factors. Regardless of the causes, the effects can be traumatically devastating. A recent Google search for the causes of derailment led to story after story of devastation, evacuation, and death. Our spiritual lives encounter the same types of effects. We are the reason that our relationship derails from our Savior. We choose to walk away. We end up in darkness.
There is hope though! Don’t you just love the hope His Word gives us? I was on my way back from the bank last week and followed behind one of those trucks that perform maintenance on the tracks. You know the ones that look like a pickup truck with things on the side that grab hold of the tracks so it can stay the course? 
That thought led to a conversation where my bride reminded me of all the railroad workers that would stay in a hotel I worked in when I was in college. Train tracks require maintenance! They require work and sometimes that work is labor intensive and requires specific and intentional actions.
Likewise, our walk in faith has certain things or actions we can do to maintain the health and allow us to stay on track with Him. 2 Timothy 3:15 tells Timothy that he was acquainted from childhood with the sacred writings that led him to salvation through faith. The writings we have are more than what Paul was writing to Timothy about! The wisdom and guidance we have in the Word are timeless! Another tool we have to guide our faith are those in our lives that God has placed to disciple or lead us. I just preached a sermon on the importance of discipleship (the shameful plug that can be found on the menu to the right under “Sermons” – fellow pastors please send me corrective criticism as I welcome it!) after VBS. There is prayer and not just any type of prayer but prayer with supplication as described in Philippians 4:6. This means we are specific. I see this more as a warning to those vague prayers! I once prayed for God to show me why He put me in a certain situation, and I was given a bunch of tongue lashings for my faith! I urge you, the reader, to pray with specificity out of my own experience!
What do you do to keep on track? Just like these tracks, we must perform a daily dose of “maintenance” or what we call spiritual disciplines. What are yours? Are they scheduled? I ask because just like the trees look as if they encroach on these tracks, sin surrounds us. We must stay on track in order to finish the course.
What do you do to maintain the course and stay on track with Him?
Biblical Bacon 