Relative Motion

Have you ever been sitting on a train at the station and had your attention abruptly disturbed by another train passing by on the next track? Just for a moment your frame of reference is confused and you actually believe that it is your train that is moving. Your stomach lurches and your head reels. It seems the mind can become confused by the idea of relative motion. Too easily we feel that we are going somewhere or making progress when, in reality, it is those around us that are going somewhere or making progress. Meanwhile, we have been and remain firmly at rest.

This idea of fooling ourselves due to relative motion came to mind when I was thinking about my faith. Many folks refer to a relationship with Christ as their Christian walk. A walk of this sort implies forward motion and progress towards a goal. That goal being an ever-deepening trust in God and reliance on His word as defined in scripture. Too often I fool myself into believing that I am further along on my own Christian walk than I truly am because those around me are making progress, when actually I am at rest. I feel certain that this hasn't always been the case, that there have been seasons in my life when I have really risen up from who I was and the sinful ways that had claimed me. However, recently I seem to have fallen into a rut of passivity and inaction, a time of focusing far too much of my energy on myself and my own issues. I don't think the answer to my being entrenched is necessarily more time in prayer or more time reading my devotional books. I think possibly that I might do better hitching my train more tightly to others who actually are in motion.