Bus without a conductor

Last weekend, I was flipping through the pages of my husband’s old journal. No, I was not sneaking... He was sitting right next to me J. I was reading in random. One of the journal entries caught my attention. This one was about a bus without a conductor. I was particularly fascinated because I’ve never been in one. However, as a kid, I used to imagine what would happen if the bus leaves before the conductor boards the bus.

My husband used to commute to office by bus. That morning, he had boarded the public bus at the busstand, to get to his office – close to 1.5 hours of travel ahead. Driver got into the bus, started it and drove a few kilometres, without realising the conductor hadn’t boarded the bus. After a while, the passengers from the back of the bus started shouting to the driver that there was no conductor! Baffled (probably also embarrassed), the driver stopped the bus, asked the passengers to get down and take a different bus to their respective destinations. He must have driven back to the busstand or waited there for the conductor to come! What more can be done in a bus without a conductor?

How often, we act like we don’t need anyone to run our lives! We think we can direct our own lives. Like a bus without a conductor can’t fulfil its purpose, life without Christ (Who is the very purpose of our living) cannot fulfil its purpose.

“... all things were created by Him and for Him” (Colossians 1:16b)

Me and My World Clock

I finally got it yesterday. A world clock. Not that I wanted or needed one. However, it is good to have one, because there was no clock on my desk. About a month back, I was one of the lucky winners to win a world clock as a prize. The prize was for playing an online game initiated by Cognizant. Well, that’s besides the point. When I got a mail saying that I have won a world clock, I did not really know what to expect. When the time came for me to retrieve the prize, I had to bother a few friends to get it to me. When it finally reached my hands, I carefully unwrapped it. The clock was in two parts. Common sense told me how to put them together. I did. It looked pretty good. But, the main function of the clock? To display time! It didn’t look like the clock was displaying time. The batteries were in place. The display was working. I know I have to set the time. But how? There are only three buttons on that clock. I tried to figure out how it worked. A few friends did too. We got nowhere. All three buttons seemed to function the same way! Let alone world time; I wanted at least the local time displayed on it.

Meanwhile, here’s what was going on in my mind... “Now, that clock only deserves to sit on my desk like a showpiece. Anyway, I didn’t pay anything for it. So, I’m not really losing anything. Hold on! It looks high-class. It’s Cognizant-branded. I’m sure there’s a way to make it work. May be there is. But what’s the use? I can never figure it out myself! It’s probably going to remain unused. How I wish there was a user manual!”

I gave up trying, put the clock on my desk and continued doing my work. A few people who saw it on my desk tried to figure out how it works. No success! Then I tried Google. No progress again. I was disappointed. When it was time to leave for the day and I was packing up my things, I dismantled the clock and packed it back the way it was. Whoa!! There it was – a manual. I was so excited. Yippee! I was going to figure out how it works. On my way back from work, I started reading the manual. There was so much I could do with it – view the time of 25 different cities, set 3 alarms, use the countdown, the timer and a few other options. That’s when I realised I could never have done any of that without the manual. I was so glad there was a user manual. As I used the manual, I had no difficulty following the steps. After doing it a few times, I can now set the time or set an alarm without referring to the manual for the steps. Now, it’s a functional world clock on my desk.

I couldn’t help but think how it is very similar with life. We try this and that. We think we are doing the right. But we don’t seem to get anywhere. Certain things work well with common sense. But there are a lot of things in life that we can understand only when we read our life’s manual. You wish there is something like that? There is! Don’t know where? Read the Bible. That indeed gives the whole perspective to life. Unless you know what life is all about, you will remain like an unused showpiece sitting pretty, not doing what you were really created to do!