We had a long and hard week with problems and difficulties that took time to resolve, if at all. It is very interesting to me that when I solve a problem, two other problems appear. I think everyone is waiting in line.
In particular, one day was quite difficult and left us both without energy. I ordered a new desk for my office and there was so much trouble getting it delivered that I almost gave up. Along the way, the desk was damaged and was returned to the store without even letting us know. We had to rearrange everything again and wait for it. But then it came. Problem solved.
That evening the kind lady of the parsonage and I sat down after dinner to watch a little TV news and have our evening coffee. We like to catch up on the news of the day to find out what’s going on.
There’s nothing like relaxing after a hard day at work and just getting some energy back into the system again, and at our age, that takes time we have little of.
As we watched the news, the kind lady of the parsonage sighed deeply and said, “Why does the news always have to be negative?”
She had a point there. Every story on the news that night was negative and left you a little more depressed than when you started watching it.
We discuss some of the negative news that is broadcast. None of that made sense to either of them. My opinion is simply, if it doesn’t make sense to the kind lady of the parsonage, I’m not going to try to make any sense to myself.
Each story was worse than the last. I felt that the attitude in the room was going further south than I wanted. Nothing in the news in any way sparked a bit of inspiration in my life.
For every negative story the news features, there should be at least five positive stories that counter the negativity.
I looked at my wife, smiled one of my social smiles, and said, “I’m going to ride the hallelujah train all the way. Do you want to join me?”
Looking at me curiously, he said, “What the hell does that mean?”
I chuckled, and when I was in control of my laugh, “Do you remember good Uncle Ned?”
She shook her head and said she never knew him, so she didn’t know who he was talking about.
So I told him the story of good Uncle Ned. He was the kind of man that if you could put him off, you were the only person who could do that.
He always had such a happy demeanor that when you were depressed you just wanted to surround him to give you some joy along with one of his nonsense stories.
Uncle Ned went through trouble in his life, probably more trouble than the rest of the family knew about, but if you talked to him, you wouldn’t know that he has just one problem in the world. He was the most positive person I have ever met. I think he was more positive than Norman Vincent Peale.
When everything was going against him and there seemed to be no solution to the problem, Uncle Ned would say, “I’m going to take the hallelujah train to the end.” Then he would throw himself into one of his infamous hallelujah dances.
It took me a long time to understand what he meant by that. If there’s anyone who didn’t have a reason to be happy, it was Uncle Ned. But you could never find anyone happier than Uncle Ned.
It wasn’t until after his death that I began to understand what he was talking about.
The “hallelujah train” he spoke of was simply that he was taking control of his attitude in that moment. He never allowed an incident, a person or even a family member to take away his happiness.
I’m beginning to understand that he deliberately chose to ride the “hallelujah train,” which put him in charge of his life.
As I was telling the story to my wife, she leaned back and smiled one of her kind smiles. Then he said, “I think I understand what he meant by that hallelujah train.”
I don’t remember anything Uncle Ned actually did or accomplished in life. I’m sure there were things, but nothing caught my attention as I thought about him. The only thing was his attitude of happiness that nothing and no one could take away from him.
As I entered the house the next day, my wife looked at me and said, “Well, I’m on the hallelujah train today.”
I didn’t have to ask him to explain, he knew exactly where he was going with this.
Problems come and go, but if I allow myself to be controlled in any way, I am the loser. Therefore, every day I will take the hallelujah train to the end.
That night I thought of one of the wise sayings of King Solomon. “He who handles a matter wisely will find good, and he who trusts in the Lord is happy” (Proverbs 16:20).
The door to the hallelujah train is simply trusting the Lord.