Getting Off The Wrong Train

Posted byFractured Faith BlogPosted inA Fractured FaithTags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I got on the wrong train the other day. Not on purpose, I might add. I was day dreaming, as ever, and got on a train pulled in at the same platform at the same time as the one I normally get home. Assuming it was mine I got on board without checking it was the right one. Imagine my horror two minutes into the journey when a tannoy announcement informed me I was on my way to the opposite end of the country.

After initially panicking I was thankfully able to change trains at the next stop meaning no harm was done. I was soon on my way home, a little sheepish, but otherwise back on schedule. It was a lesson learnt, however. I will never assume a train is mine and blindly hop on it without first checking the destination. Once bitten, twice shy. Because assuming makes an ass out of U and ME.

I wish the same could be said about the number of metaphorical ‘wrong trains’ I’ve stumbled onto in the past. Decision making and common sense are not my strong suits and I’ve made countless poor decisions down the years which have sent me hurtling down the tracks in the opposite direction from where I should have been headed. A number of these have resulted in spectacular train wrecks.

A wrong decision takes the blink of an eye to commit to but can have irreplaceable long term damage. I know that better than most. But I’ve moved on and managed to ensure I’m now firmly headed in the right direction with the people who matter to me. I don’t have the time to shoot off my designated route or be in the company of those who do not have my best interests at heart.

Have you ever hopped on the wrong train, literally or metaphorically? Are you currently on the wrong side of the tracks or travelling in the wrong direction? My word for you today is it’s not too late. There’s still time to turn your life around and get back on track. I’m living testimony to that. Anyone can make a mistake, a foolish choice that they live to regret. We are human, we strive and fail. It’s part of living.

It takes courage, humility and wisdom to realise you’ve messed up and want to put things right. The good news is that all three attributes are FREE, inside you and waiting to be deployed. All you have to do is dig deep and summon them. You’re better than the sum of your mistakes. You can and will be the person you were created to be. Get off that runaway train. Today. Now. I’ll be waiting for you 🙂

Published by Fractured Faith Blog

We are Stephen and Fionnuala and this is our story. We live in Northern Ireland, have been married for 17 years and have three kids - Adam, Hannah and Rebecca. We hope that our story will inspire and encourage others. We have walked a rocky road yet here we are today, together and stronger than ever. We are far from perfect and our faith has been battered and bruised. But an untested faith is a pointless faith. Just as a fractured faith is better than none at all. We hope you enjoy the blog.

36 thoughts on “Getting Off The Wrong Train”

  2. I hopped on the wrong train once coming home from work. I was able to leave a little early and so I was excited!! And of course, the train was super late. So when one finally came, there are 2 diff ones. The local and the Express. I take the local but didnt realize that this one was the Express. When my stop was coming I started to get up but the train kept going and going and going and I had to have my husband wait at home to see how far I went, because i didn’t know what would be the first stop and then i had to wait for him to come. Thankfully it was in the summer so weather was nice and it was still daylight.

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  3. Fab post sir. Yes I’ve made some seriously bad errors. None of which I’m prepared to share in the public domain. Suffice to say, the repercussions have on the whole taken longer to to repair than the original error took to think about and subsequently put into action. I put these mistakes down to thinking with my heart rather than my head. I’m fluffy, romantic, kind and desperate to be loved and that has often been to my detriment. Great post.

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  4. I’ve totally done this. Problem was it was the last train so when I realised and got off there were no more trains to get back to where I was meant to be and no other public transport either. I got off the train in a pretty dodgy area and ended up having to call my son and ask him if he could come and pick me up. The shame of it! 😳😝 I’ve done it metaphorically too but that’s another story. 🙂

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  5. It’s easily done, especially in the circumstances you describe. Glad you could “get back on the right track” and head for home.

    Our family is definitely on the wrong train at the moment, hurtling towards who knows where. I’m not even sure we have a driver. I think it’s a runaway train. We are appealing for a bone marrow donor for my son. All the details are on my blog. Perhaps you wouldn’t mind taking a look. Thank you!

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  10. We have a perimeter interstate that runs around Atlanta; it’s called 285, it’s a circle, and it’s impossible for me to figure out. At any point you can be going north, south, west, east, or be on the inner or outer loop. The only good thing is that if you go the wrong way, at some point you will find yourself again going the right way. This, however, is only beneficial between the hours of 11pm and 4:30am when no one else is driving on it. Otherwise, you will be driving in a circle for about seven hours. Apparently, they’ve been trying to build another one of these circles for several years; this one will go outside said loop and form a bigger loop. I suppose the trucks will be banned from it? (The whole point of 285 originally was to help the trucks who didn’t need to go through the city bypass it.)

    All that to say that I am directionally challenged, and I – 285 has proven that I can LITERALLY get lost in a circle. Google maps and I are not friends.

    Sometimes I feel like my brain is Grand Central Station, only the trains are in control. They’re jumping tracks like kangaroos; piling into each other with abandonment and still not stopping; racing down the wrong tracks, the wrong way, and never coming back. But, like I told my psychiatrist, at least they’re all my own trains. So far I haven’t been invaded by foreign cars.

    My life right now is impossible to know if I’m doing something wrong: I’m bedridden. I can’t change anything about my situation. I’ve given up on pretending to be the conductor in Grand Central; my trains are just too bossy. Some days they run mostly normal, and I get coherent thoughts out. Other times the pain blocks everything. Other days I have one train that just runs a track endlessly, and I’ll have one continuous thought that I think for 30 minutes straight, until I finally am able to think of something else.

    Did I even answer your post?

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  11. Thanks so much for this encouraging post! I certainly can relate to it, both literally and metaphorically. I managed to get lost in Dublin when I visited a few years back, but the folks there were so kind and helped me find my way back to Dun Laoghaire. It was late evening and I started to panic; I started to imagine I’d never get back and would miss my morning flight back to the U.S.A. Needless to say, my thoughts spiraled out of control . . .but, things are never quite as dire as I imagine. From that experience I learned that others will help me get “back on track and find my way home.”

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