{"id":5416,"date":"2026-05-06T08:26:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T12:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/?p=5416"},"modified":"2026-05-06T08:26:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T12:26:13","slug":"rocks-on-the-railroad-tracks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/06\/rocks-on-the-railroad-tracks\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocks on the Railroad Tracks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast<\/em>,\u00a0click here<\/a>

When I was 11 years old, I had the good fortune of spending a number of\u00a0Friday nights at the home of my best friend, Larry.

Larry and his family had the good fortune of living right beside an active railroad line on the north side of Indianapolis.

We both loved hunting fossils, and we concluded that the best pickings in central Indiana happened to be\u00a0in the crushed limestone that made up the bed of the Monon tracks.

One Friday afternoon, after we had grown bored looking for trilobites and crinoid stems, we began to speculate about the size of rock that would be sufficient\u00a0to derail an average freight train.\u00a0Within about 20 minutes or so we had lined up at least a dozen good candidates atop the rails.

Like 11-year-old boys who had seen too many movies, we began to imagine what it would be like for a train to splinter all the houses along a city block of Winthrop Avenue.\u00a0

That, of course, would include Larry’s house.\u00a0Cool.\u00a0<\/em>

After dinner, some TV, and a large bowl of popcorn, Larry and I settled into our beds in his room.\u00a0We began to talk about the next weekend, and the weekend after that.

That’s when we heard the long, blaring horn of an approaching train. It was the freight that usually barreled down\u00a0the Monon about 11:30 pm.\u00a0And it was right on time.\u00a0\u00a0

Suddenly it occurred to us that we had mindlessly left those rocks on the railroad tracks.\u00a0What swept over us at that moment was something\u00a0that I can only describe as a feeling of profound regret.

The horn sounded closer.\u00a0It was too late to do anything.\u00a0We pulled the sheets over our heads.\u00a0With a rumble and a roar, the train swept past the house, rattled down the tracks, and disappeared into the night.\u00a0\u00a0

Early the next morning, Larry and I clambered over the limestone bed to inspect the tracks. Where we had left our rocks there were nothing but piles of white powder.\u00a0We had either overestimated the size of our\u00a0rocks or underestimated the power of a locomotive, but it mattered little.\u00a0All I remember is walking away that morning thinking the sun was brighter, the air was cleaner, and I was freer than I had felt in a long time.

Since that night, lying\u00a0in the darkness of Larry’s room, I have been awake many times at 11:30 pm, troubled by a gnawing\u00a0sense of regret – thinking of things I shouldn’t have said, decisions I shouldn’t have made, picturing people I somehow managed to hurt.

Sometimes I have wished that a\u00a0magic train might come along and pulverize everything I have ever felt sorry about.\u00a0

But if there are such magic trains that run down problems, they apparently don’t follow a regular schedule.

Regret is generally a miserable experience.\u00a0No wonder so many rock stars, athletes, and celebrities have boldly declared, “I have no regrets about my life!”\u00a0But getting a No Regrets<\/em> tattoo doesn’t chase away our deepest doubts.\u00a0\u00a0

Regret can turn out to be, in fact – over the long run – a genuinely positive experience.\u00a0\u00a0

That\u2019s because it gives us a chance to re-evaluate the past and to reset the future.\u00a0Regret is a powerful teacher.\u00a0It’s also a powerful motivator.\u00a0

The next time I’m in that situation, the next time I’m asked to give my honest opinion, the next time I’m face to face with my fears, I will go a different way.\u00a0<\/em>

Feeling anguish about the past turns out to be\u00a0one of the most effective weapons in our everyday struggles to lead a more faithful life.\u00a0Repentance \u2013 rethinking who we are and where we are going, for God\u2019s sake \u2013 often springs from the soil of regret.

That’s not to say that wallowing in “if-only’s”\u00a0is a healthy long-term strategy.\u00a0Melanie Greenberg, a clinical psychologist, points out that “regret can have\u00a0damaging effects on mind and body when it turns into fruitless rumination and self-blame that keeps people from re-engaging with life.”\u00a0

In other words, we must not let the realities\u00a0of the past – however sad and discouraging they might be – destroy our hope for a better future.

When Atlantic <\/em>columnist Arthur Brooks recently interviewed James Patterson, he asked the prolific author if he wrestled with past mistakes.

\u201cI don\u2019t look back too much,\u201d Patterson replied. \u201cI\u2019m not a big regrets person.\u201d While he acknowledges things he could have done better, he tries \u201cnot to ruin the day with it.\u201d His philosophy? \u201cIt\u2019s biscuits.\u201d What does that mean? \u201cThe biscuits are made. Butter \u2018em, eat \u2018em, and move on.\u201d

Then there\u2019s the painter Bob Ross: \u201cEver make mistakes in life? Let\u2019s make them birds. Yeah, they\u2019re birds now.\u201d

Some of us can embrace a biscuits or birds approach to imperfection.

But for others, the past is so painful that it seems impossible to move on.

The greatest challenge often is to forgive ourselves. What if we cannot even fathom forgiving ourselves for our most grievous sins and mistakes?\u00a0\u00a0

The Bible’s answer is astonishing.\u00a0\u00a0

Our call is not so much to accept ourselves as to accept the fact that God has accepted us and forgiven us.\u00a0\u201cAs far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us\u201d <\/em>(Psalm 103:12). God’s grace extends to the darkest places where we cannot even seem to speak gently to\u00a0ourselves, where we cannot\u00a0imagine letting ourselves off the hook.\u00a0

But that’s the very reason God put himself on the hook, so speak, when Jesus died on the cross.\u00a0He bore our most aching regrets.

With a heart full of love, God\u00a0has done the heavy lifting.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0

Have you left rocks on the railroad tracks?

You will no doubt make more mistakes in the future.\u00a0But that’s not the end of your life.\u00a0By God’s grace, go\u00a0a different way next time.

After all, if you\u2019re reading or listening to this right now, God isn’t finished with you yet.

Every time we realize how true that is and grasp the sheer depth of God\u2019s forgiveness,\u00a0the sun will seem brighter, the air will seem\u00a0clearer, and we will feel freer than we\u00a0have felt in a very long time.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here When I was 11 years old, I had the good fortune of spending a number of\u00a0Friday nights at the home of my best friend, Larry. Larry and his family had the good fortune of living right beside an active railroad line on the north side of Indianapolis. We both loved hunting… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5417,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[76,342,936],"class_list":["post-5416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-forgiveness","tag-regret","tag-repentance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5416"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5418,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5416\/revisions\/5418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}