In Kansas City, there are acres and acres of railroad yards. In the late afternoon each day, there is a team of two men whose job is to inspect each box car. The first man goes in and checks to make sure everything is okay and then moves on to the next. The second man follows and slams shut the heavy door and places a padlock on it to make sure no one can get into it during the night.

Late one evening, as they were completing their rounds, they came to the section which the first man dreaded the most, inspecting the refrigerator cars. He disliked this part of his job because these cars are kept at 19 degrees Farenheit and he always got cold going in them. On this particular evening as he went into the last car, he noticed something suspicious in the far corner and went all the way back to inspect it. Suddenly, he heard the big door slam shut behind him and the padlock go click. He quickly ran back to the door and began to call out to his partner, ”Open up, I’m still in here!”

Unfortunately, his partner was already out of earshot. He thought the car was empty so he headed back to the office to clock out for the night. The trapped man began to panic. He screamed and pounded on the door until he was weak and hoarse, but there was no one to hear or help him.

Filled with terror, he realized that he would not be found until the morning and he knew he could not survive the 19 degree temperature all night. Resigned to freezing to death, he began to write his feelings on the wall of the car. He wrote how cold he was, how stiff his fingers were; he finally wrote, ”I know I am going to die.” His body was found the next morning crumpled on the floor beneath his scrawled notes. The thing he did not know was that the refrigeration unit on that particular car was broken and the temperature was not the 19 degrees he thought it was; actually, it was 60.

His belief that he was going to freeze to death caused him to freeze to death. He died by freezing because he believed that he would die by freezing.

We are told that in the days of Noah, ”God saw that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil continually.” We all have strong imaginations and they can be used for good or ill. This man imagined he would die by freezing and his body responded and brought about that which he believed would happen.

We need to realize how important our thoughts are. Jesus carefully explained to us how we can commit adultery and murder just by thinking the wrong kind of thoughts. Our bodies react to our thoughts even if the thing we are thinking is not true. People scream, cry and laugh at a movie when all that is really happening is that a roll of film is being projected on a screen in front of them by a light bulb.

We have a choice. We can choose to think upon the things that are ”true, honest, just, pure, lovely and of good report,” or we can think like the world and perish. Our body will react just as our mind imagines. Let us rise above the fleshly thinking of the world for ”the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds. Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” (II Cor. 10:4-5)