Why am I Here?

I don’t ask this question in the existential sense. I am not wondering at this moment if or why I exist. I’m just trying to figure out the reason I’m spending the day in airports.

One of the reactions common to travel is the  “why me?’ that springs unbidden from people who appear to be rational when not in the general vicinity of aircraft. About an hour ago I had an engaging conversation with a young business dude working next to me at the charging station. He had volunteered a great deal of personal data while conversing with his wife and then with is boss while using his airport invisibility skills (which he lacks). He is also stranded due to capricious causes involving weather or mechanicals, or personnel.  He was simultaneously talking himself into abandoning the sales presentation to return home, and working diligently to find a way to get there.

So I mentioned that we were both stranded and left a silence for him to fill.  Now he may have seen me as a seasoned traveler with great listening skills )or he might have been thinking Why is the Shrek-like geezer bothering me). However,  I was really thinking Oh, I wonder if you are why I am here?  In the spirit of Awkwardness I decided to tell him about that.

He had started giving me the play by play of his situation because he does not realize the extent of his airport invisibility ineptitude.  We shared our stories of how we came to be marooned here in SF International.  We invoked the road warrior vernacular; I made sure to work the words mechanical, tarmac, shuttle, and sky waitress into the tale. Then we talked about the illusion of control and it got real.  I went awkward and told him perhaps we were here to have this conversation. Sure, our ideas about how to spend the day were toast, but we could either spend the day holding on to that dry crust or look for opportunities. You mean like thinking positive?, he asked, No, I really don’t think there is a psychic connection between my desires and the movements of the universe, that would require a Ninja level I have not attained, I said, finding myself quite charming.  We talked about seeing this day, and hopefully the rest of them, as being a disappointing surprise to us but not to God. He has his plans, and as the old saying goes when I want to make Him laugh I tell Him mine.

Like me, Business Dude was comforted by the idea that God had not gone in search of plan B. This is the day I’ve got, what might Jesus have planned. Turns out BD know Jesus too and has decided to join me in trusting Him with days like this. He liked the idea that while he had begun his day in Seattle, and I began mine in Sacramento, that this surprise appointment may have been scheduled.

Now, I will try to stay open to the next one. I’ve got five more hours until my international redeye is schedule to depart. I’ve got nothing but time now that I’m kept my appointment to write this note to you. I’ll try to keep the perspective that I am traveling at His appointed speed. Godspeed.