On An Adventure
This weekend I had the privilege of going to a conference called She Speaks, hosted by Proverbs 31 Ministries. It was phenomenal—the best conference I have ever had the blessing of going to. I left inspired, forever changed, and with fresh revelation of my God and who He is to me.
The conference also was in North Carolina. I live in Honolulu, Hawaii. For those of you that need a quick 5th grade geography refresher, those places are far apart. That’s at least 14 or so hours of travel… one-way. It was well-worth it, don’t get me wrong, but travel can leave one feeling a little worn-out.
On the way back to Hawaii, my flight from Charlotte to my first layover in Denver, Colorado was delayed nearly 2 hours. This delay made me miss my connection to get home. Trying to stay positive as I finally made it to the front of the customer service line, I then also discovered there were no more flights to Honolulu until the next day. As I accepted this with defeat and began to work with the agent to solve my now overnight problem, I overheard the woman next to me as she struggled with a similar situation—something along the lines of she now had to add 2 additional layovers if she wanted to make it home that day. As the lady and I gave each other sympathetic looks, her young daughter smiled with excitement as she discovered she now got to go “on an adventure.”
“Wait, mom, we get to go to San Francisco now too?! Like San Francisco, California?!”
“Yeah honey, we’ll have to stop there.”
“That’s awesome! I’ve never been to California! Now I’ll get to add it to my list of places I’ve been to!”
I instantly smiled. I felt challenged in that moment to stop seeing God’s changes for my own plans as a setback or an annoyance, and instead see them as opportunities to go “on an adventure.” Soon after speaking with the customer service agent, I called my dad, who asked me, “Well, what does God have you in Denver for?” And I couldn’t help but smile and think, “an adventure.”
Upon landing I had texted a buddy of mine who lives in Colorado just to say I was around. As it turns out, this friend from college conveniently now worked just a couple of exits away from the airport and was living back at home… where there was a spare room and a home-cooked meal. That evening I had the blessing of seeing a sweet Colorado sunset, eating a home-cooked meal, and being invited into a home by a family (and in the morning got a strong cup of coffee too!).
God doesn’t change our own plans simply to inconvenience us, friends. He knows our hearts and our needs and the Kingdom’s needs better than we do. He is in the business of changing our ordinary plans into His extraordinary ones. Proverbs 16:1-2 (MSG) says, “Mortals make elaborate plans, but God has the last word. Humans are satisfied with whatever looks good; God probes for what is good.”
I thought I had a pretty good travel itinerary. I thought it “looked good”—an easy connection, home in time for work the next day, and even an extra granola bar for the plane (yeah, WOW). But God’s itinerary was actually good. Friends, I hope I can see the beauty in His change of plans with the big things, too… and I hope you will with me.
Please Note: Friends... be nice to customer service agents. It is not their fault planes get delayed and they are just doin' their darn best to do their job.
