Vertical Coffins

My son, do not lose sight of these— keep sound wisdom and discretion, and they will be life for your soul and adornment for your neck. Then you will walk on your way securely, and your foot will not stumble. If you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. Do not be afraid of sudden terror or of the ruin of the wicked, when it comes, for the LORD will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught. (Proverbs 3:21-26 ESV). There are far too many Christians who have come to believe that life is supposed to be dreary and sad. God desires us to have joy in our lives. The following story by Charles Garfield is a wonderful illustration of someone who has learned to make the most of their life. If you have ever gone through a tollbooth, you know that your relationship to the person in the booth is not the most intimate you'll ever have. It is one of life's frequent nonencounters: You hand over some money; you might get change; you drive off. Late one morning in 1984, headed for lunch in San Francisco, I drove toward a booth. I heard loud music. It sounded like a party. I looked around. No other cars with their windows open. No sound trucks. I looked at the tollbooth. Inside it, the man was dancing. "What are you doing?" I asked. "I'm having a party," he said. "What about the rest of the people?" I looked at the other tollbooths. He said, "What do those look like to you?" He pointed down the row of tollbooths. "They look like...toll booths. What do they look like to you?" He said, "Vertical coffins. At 8:30 every morning, live people get in. Then they die for eight hours. At 4:30, like Lazarus from the dead, they reemerge and go home. For eight hours, brain is on hold, dead on the job. Going through the motions." I was amazed. This guy had developed a philosophy, a mythology about his job. Sixteen people dead on the job, and the seventeenth, in precisely the same situation, figures out a way to live. I could not help asking the next question: "Why is it different for you? You're having a good time." He looked at me. "I knew you were going to ask that. I don't understand why anybody would think my job is boring. I have a corner office, glass on all sides. I can see the Golden Gate, San Francisco, and the Berkeley hills. Half the Western world vacations here...and I just stroll in every day and practice dancing." Someone has said that life is 10% what happens to you and 90% what you make out of it. They undoubtedly understood the principle of wisdom that Solomon shares with us in today’s Scripture. The kind of planning Solomon is referring to is centered in attitude. To be able to find joy in every experience of life is to understand the powerful promise of eternal life for all believers. While we don’t know the “in-between” of our birth to death story, we do know the ending. Whatever you may be experiencing today, it really is temporary and it will end with your victory. Are you living in a “vertical coffin,” or are you having a party, practicing your dancing? The choice is yours.