Thursday, September 22, 2016

The Last Train To Clarksville

The 1966 debut song of the Monkees, "The Last Train To Clarksville," was actually a protest song against the Veitnam War in which a young draftee pleads with his sweetheart to meet him at the train station before he gets shipped out.

His knows that there is a good possibility that he will not be coming home and he therefore never see her again.  He begs her not to be slow and miss the train for to do so would be to miss their one opportunity to be together, perhaps forever.

What if she decided she really wanted to sleep in that morning, deciding to catch a later train?  She would miss the only opportunity to see him as it was the last train or only train she could catch that would allow her to meet with him.  What if she chose to show up on time to the last train to Williamsburg?  Again, she would miss him as that was not his train.

Why was he being so narrow-minded?  Why didn't he tell her to take whatever train at whatever time she wanted?  Because there was only one train and one time slot that would connect her and him together before it was too late.  Any other train at any other time would not intersect the two sweethearts together.  He was not being closed-minded or bigoted against other trains or other times, he was just letting her know the only possibility of their being together.

When "Thomas said to [Jesus], 'Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?' Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me'" (Jn 14:5-6).

He was not being narrow-minded or bigoted against other paths to the Father, he was honestly and openly revealing the only way to the Father.  It isn't that other ways aren't good enough, there are no other ways.  If we want to see the Father, Jesus is the only way, the only truth, the only life.

As someone once said, "Jesus is the way - without him there is no going.  Jesus is the truth - without him there is no knowing.  Jesus is the life - without him there is no living."  He is poetically, The Last Train To Clarksville. Don't miss him.  Jus' Say'n.

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