{"id":12434,"date":"2020-03-31T19:20:20","date_gmt":"2020-04-01T01:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/?p=12434"},"modified":"2020-03-31T19:20:23","modified_gmt":"2020-04-01T01:20:23","slug":"the-parable-of-the-owl-express","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/the-parable-of-the-owl-express\/","title":{"rendered":"The Parable Of The Owl Express"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Parable of the Owl Express (by James E. Talmage<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During my college days, I was one of a class of students\nappointed to fieldwork as a part of our prescribed courses in geology. \u2026A\ncertain assignment had kept us in the field many days. \u2026 As the time allotted\nto the investigation drew near its close, we were overtaken by a violent\nwindstorm, followed by a heavy snow\u2014unseasonable and unexpected, but which,\nnevertheless, increased in intensity so that we were in danger of being\nsnowbound in the hills. The storm reached its height while we were descending a\nlong and steep mountainside several miles from the little railway station at\nwhich we had hoped to take a train that night for home. With great effort we\nreached the station late at night while the storm was yet raging. \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long after midnight the train arrived in a terrific whirl of\nwind and snow. I lingered behind my companions as they hurriedly clambered\naboard, for I was attracted by the engineer, who during the brief stop, while\nhis assistant was attending to the water replenishment, bustled about the\nengine, oiling some parts, adjusting others, and generally overhauling the\npanting locomotive. I ventured to speak to him, busy though he was. I asked how\nhe felt on such a night\u2014wild, weird, and furious, when the powers of\ndestruction seemed to be let loose, abroad and uncontrolled, when the storm was\nhowling and when danger threatened from every side. \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His answer was a lesson not yet forgotten. In effect he said,\nthough in jerky and disjointed sentences: \u201cLook at the engine headlight.\nDoesn\u2019t that light up the track for a hundred yards or more? Well, all I try to\ndo is to cover that hundred yards of lighted track. That I can see, and for\nthat distance I know the roadbed is open and safe. \u2026 The light of the engine is\nalways ahead of me!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As he climbed to his place in the cab, I hastened to board the\nfirst passenger coach; and as I sank into the cushioned seat, in blissful\nenjoyment of the warmth and general comfort, offering strong contrast to the\nwildness of the night without, I thought deeply of the words of the grimy,\noil-stained engineer. They were full of faith\u2014the faith that accomplishes great\nthings, the faith that gives courage and determination. \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We may not know what lies ahead of us in the future years, nor even in the days or hours immediately beyond. But for a few yards, or possibly only a few feet, the track is clear, our duty is plain, our course is illumined. For that short distance, for the next step, lighted by the inspiration of God, go on! [end of story]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We may not know what lies ahead in the future, but we know that for the next few yards ahead our course is illuminated and our duty is plain: spend quality time at home with our families; get our homes cleaned and organized; update our wills; organize our papers; scan important documents such as insurance policies, car titles, etc; scan old photographs; write our life histories. All we need to do is focus on covering the yards ahead that are already illuminated for us. And as we move forward with courage and faith we will find the tracks far ahead will light up more and more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

~Amy Rees Anderson (author of the book \u201cWhat Awesome Looks Like: How To Excel in Business & Life<\/a>\u201d ) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Parable of the Owl Express (by James E. Talmage) During my college days, I was one of a class of students appointed to fieldwork as a part of our prescribed courses in geology. \u2026A certain assignment had kept us in the field many days. \u2026 As the time allotted to the investigation drew near its close, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[395,163,1170,13464,178,23280,23282,11651,10187,231,23286,10183,23285,710,545,23281,23279,1967,23284,23288,23283,23278,9762,23287],"class_list":["post-12434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-amy-rees-anderson","tag-courage","tag-determination","tag-dont-be-scared","tag-faith","tag-faith-gives-courage","tag-for-a-few-yards","tag-go-forward","tag-headlight","tag-hope","tag-inspiration-of-god","tag-james-e-talmage","tag-keep-moving","tag-light","tag-move-forward","tag-our-course-is-illuminated","tag-snowstorm","tag-storm","tag-take-the-next-step","tag-the-parable-of-the-owl-express","tag-the-path-in-front-of-us","tag-the-way-is-unclear","tag-what-lies-ahead","tag-when-times-are-uncertain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12434"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12437,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12434\/revisions\/12437"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}