Hop on the Bus

I was on a greyhound bus headed toward North Carolina to pick up a truck for a friend.  In the world of transportation, busses are the lowest form of transportation. On a greyhound, you don't have assigned seats. It is first come, first served.  You stop at every little town to drop off or pick up passengers so that short one hour trip becomes an eight hour ordeal.  You spend hours squeezed in close to your fellow passengers.  Since traveling by bus is the cheapest form of long distance travel there is, that fellow passenger who is snoring just inches away is not your savvy businessman or your well heeled vacation traveler.  No, on a Greyhound, your fellow passengers are usually doing the best they can to stay afloat to get where they need to be.  Bus transportation is not "let's go to" option, but a "need to get to" option.

I like to sit in the very first seat on a bus.  It gives me a little more leg room as well as the illusion of space as I can see out the front of the bus.  On this particular trip, I was in my usual spot when we pulled into a station.  Our driver was a large African American man who had a "don't mess with me" air about him.  We pulled into a small station to let some passengers off.  Derek, our driver, stood in the doorway checking his paperwork.  I glanced out my window and saw a young woman in complete disarray sitting on the ground.  Tears streaming down her cheeks, she was frantically pulling things out of her purse and throwing them to the ground.  Derek noticed her and went over to her.  She began to sob. "I can't find my ticket.  I had a ticket and now I can't find it" she said in a voice bordering on hysteria.  The tears fell faster and her desperation grew.  "I don't know what to do.  I had a ticket. I had a ticket."

Derek knelt down and started gathering her items from the ground and putting them back into her purse.  "There, there" he crooned softly to her.  He lifted her off the ground and said, "Hop on the bus, baby.  We gonna take of you.  Just hop on the bus."  He gently guided her to the bus.  Without questioning or comment, she boarded.  Her crying stopped and she took those shuddering breaths a baby does when a mother has quieted his screaming by holding on tight.

As we left the station and rolled on down the highway, I commented to Derek about what a nice gesture he had done for the young woman.  He just shrugged and said, "That's my job.  I get people where they need to go."

I still can't stop thinking about those words.  "Hop on the bus."  "We gonna take care of you."  "I get people where they need to go."  It is kind of what Jesus said to Peter on that fishing boat in Luke 5.  There is Peter weary and dejected after a hard day of work with no catch to make it all worthwhile.  Along comes this man who tells him to cast his net again.  Despite the man's obvious confidence, even Peter has to question the wisdom of the suggestion.  However, when he does cast the net, the fish literally fight each other to get into the net.  That one cast yields a day's worth of back breaking work.  Suddenly Peter sees this man in a new light.  Yet, the man is not done.  "Come follow me."  Leave all that you know behind.  Quit what you think you are good at and come do something entirely different.

The Bible isn't really clear about Peter's state of mind prior to that encounter.  I have got to think he was a bit frustrated and maybe even a bit tired of living on the verge of nothing held hostage to the success of that day's catch.  Maybe he felt like he had no options.  Maybe he was ready to give up.  Maybe he had just resigned himself to a weary life.  Maybe he was ready for a change.  However, this was no ordinary change.  This was a complete upheaval in a way of life.  This had nothing to do with what Peter had been doing all his life.

This wandering nomad had the audacity to tell him with authority and confidence to get on the bus.  This young prophet told him to forget about how he thought his life should play out and trust him to get him where he really needed to be. The amazing thing is Peter, like the young woman at the bus station, didn't ask why.  Like her, he didn't ask for the particulars.  He just succumbed to the certainty in Jesus' command.  "Come follow me."  "Get on the bus."

I have come to admire their willingness to quickly place themselves in another's hands. In my current season of life, I know God has said those words to me.  After 30 years of ministry when faced with uncertainty.  I have sat on the ground much like that young woman.  Panicking, feeling like I have lost my way and am out of options, I have heard, "Hop on the bus, Tim"  I fought it a lot more than the young woman and Peter.  As I was faced with the possibility of the church I loved ending with no job prospects in sight, I was determined to figure out what made sense myself.   I watched my family's financial security crumble while I fought the idea of getting a non-ministry job or  the uncertainty of full time speaking.  I let things get to the point where worry and uncertainty dominated our lives.

When I finally let Him guide me, God literally put me on a bus!  It has been truly an eye opening experience about who God really is and how He walks in the daily lives of others.  I am not sure where I am going, but with each person I meet, each experience I face on the road, I have become more and more confident, God is taking care of not only me, but us.  "Hop on the bus.  He is gonna take care of you.  It is His job to get you where you need to go."


Tim