A Soldier Comes To Talk
Welcome to the next daily installment of this true story, which you can find posted here each afternoon until it comes to an end.
Chapter 90: Chuck
The observation car at night tends to be pretty peaceful. It’s a great place to have a quiet talk without anyone else listening.
Before long, Chuck came by. We talked for a while. And then I prayed with Chuck. I had been led for some time to pray for Chuck. I was not sure what I was to pray for, but I definitely got the message to not to let him go without praying for him. There was something that needed dealing with. I was entirely clueless as to what it was.
We got to talking. Chuck knew exactly what he wanted to bring to put in God’s hands. Repeatedly, God asks for that burden and promises to give us a different and easier one in return. (Matthew 11:28-30) Whatever your burden is, God wants you to put it in His hands. That goes for each one of us. Chuck had been to war and was still carrying some baggage from his time as a warrior. We were together in that observation car that night a good, long time.
Chapter 91: You Are Needed For The Next Battle
God loves Chuck so much. As I sat across the aisle from Chuck, and we talked in the empty observation car, I could feel such tremendous love in me that God feels for Chuck. It was almost too much to bear, and I suspect it was but a little tiny drop of all the love God really has for Chuck. I could see so much through that overwhelming love, and as I write this, I can still see this.
God wants him unburdened from the past. God wants him unburdened from the past, because God has work for him to do right now. God needs a loyal man with the heart of a warrior, undistracted by the past, who will do his work boldly. God has plans for Chuck. He even wants to use his experiences, the good and that bad.
Whether Chuck will let go of that burden so that he can fight the battle that God wants him fighting right now, is a matter between those two, but I know God wants Chuck to let go, so that God can put him in a more important battle. This is a battle that Chuck would never have imagined himself being put in, and that only a man like Chuck is fit for. I pray that Chuck has let God take on that burden, because I know God was calling Chuck to more.
He is not closer to the end of his life than he is to the beginning of his life. That is a lie. As far as God is concerned, Chuck’s life is just getting started. Lay down that old man, He tells us. (Romans 6:6-23) Lay him down completely. He will remake us. If Chuck will take that one step forward, and leave the past in the past, for God to deal with, God will put him in the most glorious battle he’s ever been in. That is what God wishes from Chuck at this time in his life. How clearly I can see that.
Chapter 92: Soon It Would Be Bedtime
Before long, I parted ways with Chuck. I could cry at even one of these stories of the people God let me be with and be ministered by. Or just one of the stories of the people that God let me minister to. To have an entire day of that, how blessed by God I am to be trusted with such work. How blessed I am to not be left dozing in and out for half the day, watching some roadkill from Hollywood on a computer as I wondered how much longer it would be until I was off this miserable train. Because there was a time when that was me.
These were not random occurrences. That was exactly the train I was supposed to be on. I did not even buy my ticket until that Sunday as I mentioned, shortly before the train was to depart. I did not even buy my ticket until I knew for certain that was the train I was supposed to be on.
These were exactly the people who I was to be among. And these are not even all of the stories shared here, because I hardly had enough time to even write these down as they were happening.
One step at a time, I am beginning to see the will of God more clearly and to be able to understand which step is in the will of God and which step is out of the will of God. Both steps to a former version of me, and likely to much of the outside world look “good,” perhaps even “excellent,” or even “noble.”
The more I seek God, and the more I obey, the more I learn from my mistakes and my correct guesses, my correct “leaps of faith,” and the more I develop a discernment as to what it is that God cares about and what it is that God wants me to do. I begin to know so well what the right next step looks like. And at the same time, I begin to take even greater risks, and make even bigger blunders.
But oh, does it feel good, when I realize at the end of it, that I get to go laugh at my blunder, just me and God. The blunders aren't all that bad when you know that part is coming. In fact, the blunders are even kind of nice sometimes.
-Allan Stevo
This is a selection from my forthcoming book, “The Amtrak Vignettes.” A neat story began with the writing of “The Amtrak Vignettes” in October 2023. Every day until that story comes to an end, I intend to share a part of it here. It is a part of my faith journey as a Christian, a faith journey that has been deepened since the Ides of March 2020. Some of it gets pretty wild and nothing that a “reasonable” person would find himself in the midst of. Few will be scared off by it. Instead, many will grow deeper in their faith. I know that, because I know my readers well, and I know that few come here expecting me to give a milquetoast version of anything. Come here to be challenged. Stay here to have your life changed. That, I believe, is what will come of this work. You can support that work by signing up below.