Change the Course!!!

I came across this I wrote four years ago, but it is more prevalent in my life today than ever…read and share…

Change the Course! Something struck me as incredibly odd the other day. I’d come to a railroad crossing and there had been about five cars in front of me waiting in line for a supposed train. The lights were flashing and the rail arm had been down, but, there was no train. After a few minutes, the impatience of four of the five cars took the chance of crossing the tracks despite the warning. Shortly after those few cars bypassed, the other side began doing the same thing narrowly missing each other. The first car that had been waiting, now sat directly in front of me and though he was in full view of either side of the tracks he didn’t budge. Well, after hearing about all the derailments and train/car matchups that didn’t really match up, I’d already made up my mind that I wasn’t budging either. I was okay with waiting. Well, apparently the cars behind me didn’t feel the same way and then began swinging out and doing just as the other cars had before, taking their chances with the tracks. Shortly thereafter, the car who’d been sitting there cautiosly eyeing the track in both directions slowly inched out and across the tracks to the other side as well. Now ten mins had gone by and yes, normally I probably would have been a bit impatient myself, but I decided another alternative. I backed up and turned around. Now, perhaps had my children not been in the car, I would have done that a lot sooner or I may have even dared to to the same thing that I’d seen instead of daring to be different. Yet, the funny thing is that when I stepped out and changed the course in my direction, everyone who was behind me, did the same thing.

The point to this little anecdote is not to get you paranoid about the railroad crossings (though–true story–a girl I met last night had actually been hit by a train in a car and survived–note of caution), but to push you to have the courage to do something different to benefit you and those you love instead of sticking to what seems like the quickest and most popular route. It would have been an awful mess had the train plowed over those vehicles. Yet, I had sense enough to “examine the situation for what it is (dangerous and foolish), back up(hindsight does not have to be 20/20 when the obvious is right in front of you), and take a new course of action( I still made it to my destination—and sooner than some of the other cars because they’d been backed up in traffic from following the others). Remember,changing your course is not just about you, but about everyone who’s behind you.

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