Travel Nightmare

Travel Nightmare

Blog – 11-8-17

I woke up to the view above on Monday. It’s the city of Philadelphia from my hotel room. I was supposed to be in Orlando on Monday morning, attending a training seminar; but due to a series of delays, a friend of mine and I were re-routed through Philadelphia. Unfortunately, we were delayed yet again going into Philadelphia; and when I got off the plane and raced to the Orlando gate, the nightmare heated up because they had closed the door four minutes earlier. Four minutes!!! And it was the last flight out that night.

To complicate the situation, by the time we could get to Orlando on Monday morning we were going to miss so much of the training that our best option was to cancel our training entirely. Frustrated and dejected, we booked a flight to head back home Monday afternoon, flying into Sioux Falls (via Pittsburgh and Chicago) because the flights to Sioux City were full. Arghhhh! But as fate would have it, delays happened again on Monday, and we got re-routed at the very last minute to Miami and then Omaha. Seriously…I’m not making this up!

I finally made it home at 12:30 Tuesday morning after spending basically two full days flying to get absolutely nowhere!

Wasn’t exactly how I planned to spend my week. I was hoping to be writing this blog from sunny Florida! But God has a way of using things, even frustrating travel stories like this one, to teach me His pearls of wisdom.

The first pearl I learned is that I need to watch my mouth and work on my patience. Honestly, we were not treated very well by some of the airline agents that we dealt with, but that doesn’t give me the right to be rude back. I found my tongue being sharper than I intended as I asked them why in the world they didn’t hold the gate when six of us who were trying to get to Orlando were right there. Doesn’t make sense to me. All the delays didn’t make sense to me either since none of them were weather related. Crazy!

When I woke up in Philly on Monday morning, I felt a powerful nudge by the Holy Spirit to examine my behavior and remember that all the delays were not the fault of the people we had to deal with the day before. Yes, they definitely could have shown us more compassion, but that doesn’t justify bad behavior on my part. I need to guard my tongue and my tone.

The second pearl of wisdom God showed me was this:

Isn’t it gorgeous!

This was the view from one of our last flights before we finally got home. It was like a beautiful hug from a loving Father to His stressed out, tired little girl saying, “See, Jill, I’m still in control. Your life doesn’t feel like it right now when you’ve lived in an airport for two days. I know you’re frustrated, but I’ve got this.”

The third pearl was our attitude makes all the difference. Monday was a lot less stressful for me than Sunday because of a simple t-shirt. Let me explain. I have a t-shirt that says, “Fix it, Jesus.” I get lots of looks and comments when I wear that shirt, and it’s a definite statement about where I stand with my faith. It announces to the world that I am a Christian.

I put that shirt on on purpose Monday morning in that Philadelphia hotel room because I knew we might hit some delays again. I just had a feeling. I wanted to remind myself of my desire to be different and keep it together, no matter what happened that day, to shine the light of Jesus even when I am at the end of my rope. I chose to be intentional about how I spoke to people, and I got on our last flight with no regrets. It may sound crazy, but that shirt made me have a much better day because it helped me keep my act together, knowing others would be watching.

Then God gave me that beautiful view outside my window, and I almost had to chuckle. God is SO good!

The last pearl of wisdom came the next morning when I saw this on my front porch:

It may not seem like much, but it was the most beautiful sight in the world at that moment. My luggage, in the midst of all the last-minute changes, got lost. Of course it did! A wonderful baggage handler who I will never know found it and delivered it to me in the middle of the night. It felt like I had won the lottery.

Some of you might think I am reading too much into this tiny little miracle, but I felt like God was smiling on me and saying, “Thanks for keeping it together yesterday. Good job!”

However it came to be, I am grateful. Grateful that it showed up. Grateful that I didn’t have to wait days to get my makeup, flat iron, and all my “stuff” back. Grateful to be home, in my own bed, not on a plane flying nowhere. And grateful that God continually uses the annoying, frustrating, patience-robbing, joy-sucking situations in my life to teach me and grow me and build my character.

And that, my friends, was my travel nightmare!

Father, thank you for Your pearls of wisdom in the midst of our storms. Thank you for Your gentle reminders and nudges. Help me remember that I might be the only Jesus someone sees today. Prepare my heart to share the grace that you have so freely given me with others.

Hugs and love,

Jill