Clay in the Hands

At the beginning of this week, I made another trek to west Texas for a meeting.  And what started out as a simple fly to west Texas, have my meeting, get some work done and fly back turned into an adventurous journey.

I will spare you all the details but due to bad weather in Houston, my plane was delayed just long enough leaving Corpus Christi that I missed the last plane out of Houston.  Of course, when I got to Houston and worked with a helpful gate attendant to re-route my travels for the next day, all stores and restaurants were closed in the airport and there were no rooms in the local inns either due to all the things going on in town.

So there I stood in the middle of Houston Hobby airport with nothing to eat and no place to lay my head for the night.  I will say, I got very acquainted with the layout of the airport and I also got some work done.

But finally at 1:30 am, I had walked and sat all I could.  I found a semi-dark area behind a gate counter and stretched out on the floor.  I am not sure I slept much the hour and a half I lay there.  It was hard to rest on commercial grade carpet laid down directly over concrete.  But the discomfort of the floor was not the biggest thing on my mind.  I kept wondering where all the shoes had been before they walked across this particular 15 square feet of carpet.

As I have thought about my adventure, I have thought about how spoiled I have become.  I have grown very accustomed to the comforts of my life.  I take for granted that I have a warm house with a comfortable bed.  I don’t lack much of anything really.

But sometimes, it is when those amenities are gone that we realize what we miss.  It can also be very revelatory in seeing those things we have that we can do without.

The season of Lent is designed to help us realize that we put many things in our lives that we don’t need.  When we take the time to do a mental inventory and simplify our lives, we might just realize we need very little beyond our relationship with the father.

I was reminded, through my adventure, that God is good – even when things don’t go according to my plans.

I also learned that occasionally we may need a good chiropractor.

Be blessed today!