Fresh off my high of a fun interview on FamilyLife Today, I sat in seat 17D, awaiting takeoff. I opened my book by Og Mandino, A Better Way to Live. Here’s what I read:
Be forever on guard against the terrible traps of false pride and conceit that can halt your progress. The next time you are tempted to boast, just place your fist in a full pail of water, and when you remove it, the hole remaining will give you a correct measure of your importance.
Isn’t that the perfect thing to read after finishing taping a national radio interview? I love how God sends me clear messages!
Then, more humble circumstances…I was flying into Dallas but DFW was stopping all flights because of hail. We sat in the plane for 2 hours in Little Rock, then de-planed for 1 hour, and then got on again. I was hungry, thirsty, and tired.
Landing in Dallas 3 hours late, I thought it would be no problem to get my connecting flight to San Diego since the whole airport was experiencing delays. It was about 10:45 pm.
I said to the airline attendent giving connecting flight info at the gate, “San Diego.”
He said, “A-35. RUN!”
We were at Terminal C, gate 11. I took off frantically running in my sandals, dragging my suitcase, towards the sky train. I waited (what can you do to make a sky train go faster?). I boarded the sky train, got off at the second stop and started running towards A – 35.
As I got closer, my heart sank.
There was no one waiting at the gate.
“Am I too late?” I sputtered to the gate agent.
He said, “You made it.” I look at the departure time. It said 10:50 pm. It was now 10:53 pm.
He had to give me a new boarding pass because my seat had been given away. And then he said that word again.
RUN!
Run? Here we go again – I ran down the walkway which was about 4 times as long as the walkways in San Diego. It went to the left, then to the right, then to the left, finally I stepped on that plane.
I thought first class should break into applause – I had made it! I was going home and not spending the night at DFW!
Instead, I think everyone was irritated that they had to wait for me to find my seat after a long, arduous day of traveling for everyone at DFW.
When I plunked down in my seat, my heart was full of joy. I had prayed, “God, let me go home tonight. Get me on that airplane” and He did.
Chances are, you’ve had inconveniences and close calls this week too. What have they been or have you ever had a close call at the airport?
