Orlando Anyone?

The alarm clock went of at 3:15am Monday morning and I got up a little groggily out of the bed. It was time for me to start my day as I got myself ready to head to Nashville to catch my flight to Orlando for National Council for the C&MA. Originally I had not planned on attending council, but it seems as though the Lord had been working some things out because it is where he wanted me to be. The night before it was a little strange as Richard had prayed about my flight being cancelled, and he prayed that the Lord would have his way and that God would show me that any cancellation or delay that happened was because of His will. So when I showed up to the Nashville Airport on Monday morning to find that my flight had been cancelled I tried to take it in step, and Richard’s prayer resonated in my head. At that moment I began to look for why it was that God was delaying me.

Lots of crazy thoughts came in my head from the Lord keeping me off a flight that was doomed to crash, to perhaps him putting me on a flight that was doomed to crash so that I might share Christ with those folks in their last few minutes of life. My imagination is sometimes a little fertile and over active. As I settled down and got a new flight on a different airline I began to just hand out gospel tracts to those I met, because of my last minute flight change I got selected for extra searching and got to share a brief witness with the guards. Is this why God had changed my flight? On the plane the man that was seated next to me slept as I did on the flight, but when we got off the plane I witnessed to some high school students. My seat mate overheard and we rode the tram in the Atlanta Airport together as I shared about the Lord with him. Was this why God had changed my flight?

Once I made it into concourse T at the Atlanta airport I went to the gate for the flight. Well us the Lord would have it the gate changed, and so I had to keep moving. As I walked the concourse a Smoothie Shop came up on the right and so I stopped to get a smoothie, and two young men were working the booth. I had a couple hour lay over I so I just shared my faith with those two young men as they asked me question after question. Probing me with hard thoughts on the claims of Christianity, challenging my faith as I relied upon the spirit, and one of them even asking me to give him the bible that I had offered to his friend.

Where was I going again? Oh yeah – Orlando via Charlotte but somehow I ended up in Atlanta witnessing to two dudes who made my smoothie as I went to the gate that my flight I never should have been on had been changed to. You know it’s really kind of funny but the one young man that I was sharing my faith with was named Orlando. Maybe I was going to Orlando after all – just not the Orlando I thought. Is this the reason I got rerouted, cancelled, delayed, gates changed, and all the other crazy stuff that was happening with this trip. Who knows on this side of eternity – but someday in heaven I think we will know. That is why Christ told us that while we were going we were to be making disciples of all nations. By the way after I finished my conversation I went to the gate and my gate got changed again back to the end of the concourse I came in on. If I had never had that gate change I may never have met Orlando. Sometimes I wonder at what God is doing, but I know that His ways are better than mine, and so I will trust in Him for His ways are far better than mine.