Traveling

I have loved to travel since the time I was young. Family vacations (mentioned in an earlier post), business, missions trips. I have walked, driven, flown, ridden on the train, taken buses, been on boats and more. I like the adventure of traveling. On a recent trip to California, I had probably my worst experience ever when it comes to flying. Talk about an adventure. On the way there our flight was delayed because of thunderstorms, so we missed our connection to our final destination. We absolutely had to be there and asked about other flights and we were offered no real help at all. We finally made our own arrangements with another airline and had to spend a lot more money to get to where we needed to go but PRAISE GOD, we got there. On the way home, our flight was again delayed, this time because of mechanical and security issues. We sat in the airport for 7 hours waiting for our flight and after all that, we missed our connecting flight home. We were told that we would at least have a hotel room to stay in for the night. When we talked to the people about our room, they told us, "no", we couldn't have one. After about an hour and a half of negotiating, we were finally given a voucher (coupon) for a free room. When we went to leave the airport, there was no shuttle available and we were told it would cost $55 to take a taxi. It would also take a half hour or more to get there. We decided the free hotel wasn't really free and ended up sleeping (not really) in the airport for 4-5 hours to try and catch an early flight home. With all of the mess, challenges and frustration, I kept asking, "God, what do you want me to learn from this?" That's an important thing to do. Let God take advantage of any and every situation you find yourself in and He will use it for good. God can show you how He provides, how He refines, how you can have peace and joy, how your delay might really be about helping someone else. There are many things that we don't see when we are all upset about how bad things are going for us. If we stop and ask God, He will help us to see a bigger picture and how we can even be blessed by less-than-fun circumstances. I pray your travels go smooth.