Considering My Flight Home

I was off to the airport a bit early this morning thanks to the 5 inches (and counting) of snow that fell overnight and into the morning.  I had a 12:30 flight home.  The snow made slow going, which was not helped by the driver’s incessent need to look around and see damage from last week’s ice storm.  He slowed down even more.  A few times we were caught behind snow plows or caught in an accident slowdown.  So, the time before my flight decreased as my anxiety increased.

Shortly after 11 we pulled into the Albany airport.  There was no curbside check-in so I had to endure the line inside.  Anxiety level (sinfully) rising.  After checking my bag, I went up the escalator to security.  I still needed to go to the bathroom (I had a cup of tea earlier) and grab some lunch before hopping on the plane.  Predictably (?) the usually quiet Albany airport had a fairly lengthy line that was moving sslloowwllyy.  Finally 2 more TSA employees showed up to get it moving faster.  Yes!  The x-ray machine broke.  No!!  But I still got through with plenty of time to take care of my ‘errands’  before heading to the gate.

As I sat there munching my McDonald’s chicken strips, I learned that the delayed flight to Baltimore was getting our plane, and we would wait for the replacement.  One lady complained on her cell phone, “they stole our plane.”  I figured “Southwest giveth and Southwest taketh away.”  Their name, not mine, is on the plane so they can do what is best for all their customers, not just me.  So 12:30 became 1:35, which became 1:55, which became 2:30.  But we were onboard and ready to go, with a few more passengers from the other delayed Orlando flight so there were no spare seats.

For the next 3 hours I listened to the 2 little old ladies behind me talk non-stop.  Correction- one talked non-stop while the other was the “amen lady” offering a constant chorus of “yeah, right, yeah.”  I could deal with that, but the other lady regaled her captive audience with stories of the times she hit her husband (“you do something that stupid, I’m gonna nail ya”), 2 different venom-filled rants against both President Bushes which ended with her wanting to have all the Bushes on the USS Bush so it could sink and they could be shark bait.  I was tempted to jump over the seat at this point.  There were also rants against doctors, pharmacists and drug companies and more. 

I listened to 3 hours of bitterness, complaining, and ingratitude.  I begged God not to let me end up like that near the end of my life.  This is not how I want to be.  It didn’t help that I’d just read Jerry Bridges’ chapter on Ingratitude in Respectable Sins.

I’m thankful for:

• A restful week with my family.
• Lots of snow for the kids to enjoy.
• My daughter’s first Christmas program.
• A safe flight home.
• That we have a home
• I had a job interview this week.
• I get to preach God’s Word this weekend.