I felt like this was a story I needed to share.
We’ve been on a pretty crazy stretch this summer. For us, a crazy stretch consists of several nights in a row with shows in different states every night. We usually fly everywhere we go, so each day includes a couple of flights, maybe a short drive in a rental car, some rest at the hotel and then a show in the evening.
When people ask us how they can pray for 321, the first thing we always ask is that they pray for our flights. When you fly this much, the odds say that you will be delayed or canceled at least a few times. We always pray that God will get us where we need to be.
A couple of weeks ago, we got up early for our drive to the airport in Charleston, West Virginia. When we arrived at the airport, everything looked like a normal day for us. But that would change quickly.
The announcement went something like this, “Attention, everyone flying to Atlanta this morning. Your plane has landed, unfortunately due to mechanical problems the plane must return with no passengers on board. We will attempt to re-book you as quickly as possible.”
We immediately went into problem solving mode. We knew we couldn’t wait for the next flight out of Charleston. We had a show that night in Louisiana and had to figure out a way to get there. We got on the phone with Delta Airlines and started looking at possibilities.
The one that seemed to make the most sense was to drive 3 hours to Cincinnati and fly directly to Dallas, then it would be a 3 hour drive to our show.
We had just enough time and made the flight out of Cincinnati. We made it to our show and everything worked out. We kept our streak alive of never missing a show due to flight problems.
The fun part came the next day when I sat next to a flight attendant on my way home to Florida. We started talking and I mentioned our travel issues from the day before. During our conversation he smiled and said, “It’s a good thing that happened or you never would have made it. There was bad weather in Atlanta that day and you would have been stranded there.”
I was stunned! We saw it as a hassle to drive to Cincinnati, but God knew that was the only way for us to make it.
I was so thankful! That was an answered prayer. God made sure we got where we needed to be. It might not have been the way we preferred, but His way is always best!
It made me wonder, in the past when we were re-routed, how many of those times was it simply God getting us there the only way possible. The only difference was this time we found out that we wouldn’t have made it on the original route.
God, thank you that your ways are not our ways. Thank you that You see the big picture when we cannot. Thank you for caring for us and directing our paths. Amen.