LONELY JOURNEY

Excerpted from my FROM MASON TO MINISTER: Through the Lattice hardback.

Lonely Journey

While going through my conversion, I was wrestling with issues such as the tension between man’s free will and the sovereignty of God. I recall my brother Fearghas saying that these things meet in eternity, kind of like parallel railroad tracks meeting in the far-off horizon.

Glasgow to Inverness Train

The consistent Calvinist, as I was to learn, holds man’s responsibility and God’s sovereignty in an equal and balanced tension. While God is 100 percent sovereign, He holds man 100 percent responsible for his actions. It’s kind of like the Bible: 100 percent of it is written by God while 100 percent is written by men. But somehow this doesn’t add up to 200 percent, only 100 percent! Such is the mystery of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility - it can’t be worked out with a simple mathematical, theological, or any other sort of equation.

Regardless, going through the whole conversion experience was a lonely time for me. I wrote:

Lonesome Train

I felt at the wicket from the price of the ticket 

I was witness to a serious crime! 

I turned and shook my head 

as the Stationmaster said, 

“Good grief! The train is on time!” 

Is it predestination when your train leaves the station  

and journeys to someplace new? 

Or is it just a bore when you’ve seen it all before 

Like some permanent déjà vu? 

Lonesome train, take me away!

Is it providence or fate 

when you enter through the gate  

to find your train standing on the wrong track? 

Does your heart skip a beat 

when you notice that your seat 

has got your name printed on a gold plaque?

With a teardrop in your eye you just smile and wave goodbye, 

you’re trying to escape from your mind. 

But on the rack above your head, 

Fearghas & Neil

there’s a suitcase full of dread. 

You packed the things you should have left behind. 

Lonesome train, take me away!

You’ve got to travel fast to escape a shady past  

but the present always hangs around. 

The future’s always near, but it never gets that clear 

when you don’t know where your train is bound. 

You won’t clean out your mind, you’re afraid you’re going to find 

some thought that’s going to cause you pain. 

But the world still passes by out of the corner of your eye 

when you sit aboard that lonesome train. 

Lonesome train, take me away to a bright new day. It’s a bright new day.

Here's an old video of me singing Lonesome Train
https://tinyurl.com/y9calkuq