Once again, I found myself spending an inordinate amount of time in an airport over Christmas Break. It’s almost always due to a chain reaction—one plane is late for some kind of vague mechanical reason and then that plane's tardiness makes you late for your connecting flight, so you have to find a new flight… And the next thing you know, my mom and I spent a good 8 hours in the Denver airport.
Over my years of air travel, specifically this last year where I’ve visited five different countries, I’ve had my fair share of bad airport experiences. And honestly, they have all been in America—my experience in third-world airports has been much more pleasant. The most annoying incident was when everyone had boarded the plane, we sat there for 45 minutes, then they told us to get off because something was broken and they needed a new plane.
The worst experience, however, was on my way back from Belize. I was stuck in the Houston airport, just needing a little hop over to Dallas where my car was parked. Some mechanical problems prevented the evening flight and they kept pushing departure back by an hour at a time. I remember the tension in the waiting area and the collective groans every time the time was pushed back a little more. Finally, at around midnight, they just canceled it. We had been waiting for five or six hours, easily enough time to have driven there.
With no planes leaving until the next morning, I, along with many others, opted to rent a car to get to Dallas. Because I had the credit card in the group of five strangers that banded together, I was the driver. So, at half past midnight, I cruised on up to Dallas in three and a half hours, dropped off my crew, dropped off the car, got to my own vehicle, and then drove three hours to my house just in time to shower for my scheduled therapy appointment that morning!
Airports…airlines…air travel… I can’t think of any other modern marvel that can cause such frustration and effortlessly ruin a day.
Honestly, if I were a politician, I would just give control of the airlines to Chick-fil-A. I’ve never seen a place with better organizational efficiency! They would improve scheduling, effectiveness, professionalism, and customer service by a thousand percent. We’d all be better off!
In discussing recent airline woes with my Uncle David, who is himself a reader of this newsletter, he noted how crazy it was for us to be mad when we couldn’t fly on our time due to some kind of mechanical or weather issue. If you think about it, none of us would WANT to fly on a plane when there is a potential for failure of a major system or when there is so much fog over our destination that we can’t safely land!
In other words, our inconvenience is often a protective measure—it’s for our own good!
So why do we get so frustrated when a multi-million dollar physics-defying metal flying machine soaring 33,000 feet above sea level does not leave on time because they want to make sure we all, ya know, don’t die?
Because we can’t see the big picture.
Scripture is filled with stories of waiting. And that waiting always leads to things far greater than we can imagine. The birth of Isaac is much more impressive because Sarah was 90—compared to if she were like 23. Joseph had to wait in slavery and then in prison for many years before becoming the second most powerful man in the most powerful nation at the time. When the Israelites are exiled to Babylon, God promises them good things—after a time of waiting. The Lord says in Jeremiah 19:10-11,
‘When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’
Yeah, that uplifting fan-favorite verse Jeremiah 29:11 is precipitated by a declaration that they have to wait 70 whole years to receive that promised prospering.
Really, the whole Old Testament is about waiting for the promised Messiah. And then the Messiah comes, and then there’s more waiting because the Messiah has kicked a restoration project off but it’s not going to be complete right away. We await the Second Coming of Christ, which, apparently, is still “coming soon” even though it’s been 2,000 years…
Being patient and content with waiting, even when things don’t play out to our timetable, allows us time to build the character needed for the situations ahead. It also gives room for God to do something truly miraculous. Like with airport delays, periods of waiting can protect us from danger that we would never see coming and also guide us toward new adventures we could never imagine.
Moreover, God orchestrates times of waiting just to give more people a chance. In 1 Peter 3:8-9, 15, Peter reminds us that God has a different concept of time, but it’s in our best interests.
But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. …Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.
I’m grateful to have a God who cares—who is not a Medieval monster just hoping to ship anyone to Hell who gets on his bad side. The God we worship desires salvation and a repentant life for all.
We can groan all we want about delays, but perhaps more often than not they are in our best interest. In life, we can’t see the big picture, though that’s where faith comes in: God can always see much more of the picture than we ever can. Trusting in God is thus the best way forward.
How shall we respond during seasons of waiting when the life we crave seems so far off? Romans 12:12 offers simple but profound advice that I’ll leave with you to ponder: “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”
Amen.
Hey, I’ve written about waiting before, specifically about why we shouldn’t give up, in another article. You can read it AND watch me fail at surfing by hitting the button below.
Question of the Week
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My “Goings On”
I’m working on revising my book Who We Are for the second—expanded!—edition.
Super Jake book 2 in January!
Another book of mine, about the applications for artificial intelligence in ministry, should be out in late January or early February.
Wait for iiiitttt,
Jake Doberenz
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Another Good post, Jake.
Enjoy your writing, Jake. Keep it up, and thinking of you during the holiday season, and the loss of your dad.