Flying home for Christmas

 

I was looking forward to spending Christmas in Phoenix with my family. I had a break in my residency in clinical pastoral education at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in D.C.

 

When I arrived at the airport, I found my flight was cancelled. I waited in line with hundreds of others. My hopes faded when the attendant behind the counter looked like a high school student filling in during his holiday break. When I explained my situation, he suggested an alternate route.

 

He told me there was a flight ready to go to Pittsburgh. From there , I could take a flight going to Los Angeles. But my destination was Phoenix. He explained the LA flight would have to refuel in Phoenix due to headwinds and I could get off the plane there. My instructions were to tell the crew when I boarded in Pittsburgh I was the one to be let off in Phoenix.

Anything that would get me out of Washington D.C. today was worth the try, so on to Pittsburgh it was.

 

I explained my situation to the flight attendant on boarding in Pittsburgh. She said she would let the pilot know but told me this plane was going directly to LA. I took my seat.

 

When we were almost ready for takeoff, the captain announced over the PA, “Would the guy who thinks he is going to Phoenix please come forward.”All eyes were on me as I walked to the front of the cabin. Everyone had a good laugh at my expense.

The crew was adamant. They were not stopping in Phoenix, but I could go to LA and then get a flight back to Phoenix. I agreed to do so and again I took my seat.

 

Everyone settled down for a quiet flight. Well into the night, the captain came on the PA with an apology for disturbing everyone’s sleep. He announced he had good news for one passenger and bad news for everybody else. Fuel was low because of headwinds, so we were stopping to refuel in Phoenix.

 

I wanted to gloat but held my reaction to a smug grin. In Phoenix, we parked out on the tarmac. The rear stairs were lowered and I was taken to the terminal in a service truck.

I’ve never found a logical explanation for how the young counter worker in Washington knew the plane would have to refuel when the flight crew was certain it would not.

 

That leaves the illogical, the mysterious.

After all, it was Christmas. Was he an angel? I’ll never know.

 

Gerald Knighton,
retired Air Force chaplain
Slidell, La.

Blaming God?

 

Week of December 8

 

 

It was a season in my life that I was so angry and hurt I was even blaming God for allowing me to wreck my life. I had sacrificed so much and he allowed this to happen.

 

The Elders came over with a form for me to sign that I would read the Bible every day, even if I didn’t feel like reading it. 

 

I told them, “You can fire me now but I can’t sign that form. I am not reading the Bible. I’ll read the book of Ecclesiastes…it is the only book that makes any sense. I do believe in God but I’m not sure His Word is all we have made it out to be.”

 

God heard all that and God decided No Problem. I have lots of others ways to speak to you. Two things happened.

 

One was my daughter Catherine bringing me the Bible to read as a bedtime story. I was irritated because I didn’t want to read the Word but how do you tell a child you don’t want to read the Bible.

“I was  wiped out but I heard God’s voice through the story.”

 

That was one way God got the Word back in my heart and the other was the Diary of Ann Franck. I was watching an old version of the film in black and white. I remember seeing all the frail people fighting over crumbs. These people were under the oppression of Hitler. I realized that Lost people are under the oppression of evil.

 

I recalled the song that was sung at my ordination, a song that I have always loved, “People need the Lord.” I felt called by God to rescue the lost people. I felt I had the answer. People need the Lord. They are dying and I had the solution but I can’t get to them anymore. I felt like a gladiator who wanted to fight but that I was outside the ring.

 

I remember weeping and crying and saying what are we going to do. I’m on the sidelines. I called Bob Yawbeg ( a pastor’s pastor) later that night and he said “Jeff you are a gladiator and you will fight again but right now God is doing something in you to prepare you for the long haul. Let it happen.”

 

I now realize it wasn’t God but it was me to blame.

 

Jeff Wilson

Birmingham, Alabama

God's Baby Blanket

 

 

 

 

 

 

“God has a plan for each of us,

and what we want and ask for,

        may not fit into that plan.”

Albert Einstein

 

 

 

Week of December 1

 

 

Paul and “Bob”

 

I was going through a really difficult time. I was recovering from a divorce, my daughter was living away from home at school and the bank I was working for was going under due to big mistakes in real estate lending practices.

 

Then the unthinkable happened. My male friend committed suicide. I found his body slumped over in his car still in his garage. I never felt more alone.

 

The following evening a dear friend from the bank, Noreen, came to my apartment with her husband David. They gathered up a few of my things, literally carried me to their car and drove me to their home.

 

Noreen made a wonderful bed for me out of the couches in her living room, made a fire in the fireplace and instead of bringing me a box of tissues she brought me all her frilly hankies. She also made a pot of my favorite tea.

 

While we talked about our deceased friend her son Paul, who was probably five or six at the time, kept coming in and out of the room. Each trip he brought a handful of toys or stuffed animals, which he lined up next to me on the couch. The more I thanked him the more things he brought me. In his little boy way he was bringing everything he had to comfort his mother’s friend who obviously was crying and sad. Lastly he brought into the room his most precious possession-his baby blanket.

 

I understand all things baby blanket. Those of us who were baby blanket people have a way of finding each other. We have a language that only we understand. So little Paul and I immediately had this bond and he showed me his baby blanket that looked like a large blob of shredded rags tied together in large knots.

 

He called his baby blanket “Bob.”

 

After a while, Paul and “Bob” went off to bed.  When the house was quiet I started reflecting and I began to cry and even sob. My shaking with grief was interrupted by the sound of shuffling little feet. It was Paul walking towards me carrying “Bob.” Without saying a word, he gently laid “Bob” in my arms, turned and left the room.

 

At that moment, I knew that God was using this child to comfort me in my time of pain and sorrow.

To this day, I am blown away by that precious little one obeying the prodding of the Lord and lending me his most cherished possession that evening. God manifested his love that night to me.

 

Joy Holloway Salter

West Hartford, Connecticut

Are you Discouraged?

Thought for the weekend of Nov, 23-25

"If you are going through a time of discouragement,
there is a big personal enlargement ahead."

                               Oswald Chambers
                          My Utmost for His Highest

Thought for the weekend

Thought for the weekend of November 16,2013

"The one way to peace and bliss, every prophet has told us, is to give yourself away."
       Ruth Cranston,  The Miracle of Lourdes

Do Not Be Afraid

 

Week of November 10

 

Several years ago I was going through a tough time and feeling a great deal of anxiety. Something happened that has been a source of comfort and courage ever since.

 

I need to say, right up front, that I have never practiced, nor do I agree with, what has sometimes been called “Bible roulette.” This is the technique

of seeking guidance from God by letting the Bible fall open at random, putting your finger on the page, and trying to interpret as a directive from

God the verse thus identified. On the other hand, in my personal devotions I will often select a passage to read as I feel led, or because I feel a need.

 

I must also say that the Bible I usually use for my devotional reading was, at the time I am referring to, still fairly new. It was not dog-eared from use, nor did it naturally fall open to any particular passages.

 

The event is recorded in my journal. But it need not be, for it stands out in my mind with crystal clarity.

 

I was alone and feeling agitated. There seemed no end to my anxiety. I cried out, “O God, I am so tired of being afraid!” It wasn’t a formal prayer. It was a cry from the heart.

 

At that moment I felt an urge, an invitation, a desire to turn to Scripture. As I reached for my Bible, I felt a definite inclination to turn to the Old Testament. But nothing more specific had yet come to mind. I opened the Bible somewhere around the middle. The very first words my eyes fell upon were these: “...do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God...”

 

I was awestruck. I tried to reproduce the event, but it was soon obvious that my Bible was not automatically opening to Isaiah 41:10.

 

The skeptic may call it coincidence. But I am convinced that God was in that event, speaking precisely to my anguish through those words of Scripture. Thanks be to God.

 

Persh Parker
Billings, Montana

God Intervenes at a truck stop

Week of November 3

 

 

I’m a salesman and a part time chaplain to the trucking industry. This is a true story.

 

Three days after 9//11, 2001 I was on my way to Destin Fl. for the annual convention of the Tennessee Trucking Association where I planned to launch Hope Haulers, a family of services to and through the trucking industry Upon arrival I wasn’t surprised to find everyone talking about 9/11. When I spoke with the association president he asked me if I would deliver the opening prayer. I said I would.

 

 When I stood up in front of the convention, and I hadn’t planned this, I said, “looking out at your faces I see some of you are wondering what is going on in the world and others of you look worried. I might feel the same way if it wasn’t for my faith and knowing my destiny. I believe God has us all here for a reason and if any of you have uncertainty in your life and are anxious see me before you leave this conference.”

 

Two hundred and fifty people came up to talk with me over the next three days.

 

Shortly after returning to Nashville I went to the chapel at the truck stop in Antioch to pick up some tools that I left there before going to Florida and to

 

 

talk with Chaplain Doug. A young man came in and started asking the chaplain questions. The nature of the questions told me I should retreat to the chaplain’s quarters and pray for Doug while he talks with the man.  I could hear the chaplain making progress when a lady truck driver comes in and interrupts the conversation. I came out and suggest that the lady and I go next door to the restaurant. She is angry with God and unloads on me. We talk for more than an hour and she calms down. I realize I have to leave and I give her my cell number and head back to the chapel to pickup my tools.

 

The chapel is empty and I wonder how Doug made out with the young man. As I walk out of the chapel with my tools I notice a truck waiting to pull up to the fuel isle but there is no truck in front of it. The driver is just staring straight ahead.

 

 I yell, “hey trucker you can move up.” No response, the driver stares straight ahead.

 

I walk over and jump up on his rail. “You ok?”

 

The driver slowly moves his head and says he is waiting for his wife who is in the restaurant. Then he adds, “I’m a mess.”

 

I tell him to pull around and park and to meet me in the chapel. I drop my tools in my truck and I spot

 

Doug in the restaurant. He tells me he had a good talk with the young man and has scheduled a follow up tomorrow. Together we go into the chapel and

pray for the man in the truck.

 

After a few minutes, he comes into the chapel. “You have something heavy weighing you down?” He nods. I ask, “are you a Christian?”

 

“Sorta.”

 

“Did you ever accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior?”

 

“Sorta.”

 

“Let’s address sorta. What do you mean by sorta?”

 

He tells me that he was kicked out of his house when he was 15, moved into the home of a pastor and his wife. He lived in the basement for a few years and that is when he “sorta” heard about the Lord.

.

“I find a good starting point is getting right with the Lord, would you like to do that,” I ask?

 

“OK, how do I do that?”

 

“Go for it! Just start praying.”

 

There is a long silence. He starts to sweat.

 

I say, “Tracey there is a battle going on right now over you. If it is alright with you I’ll put my hands on you and I’ll pray over your body. Are you comfortable with this?” He says, “Yeah.”

 

 After two minutes of prayer he opens up and there is a stream of confession, repentance and acceptance of Jesus as his Lord and Savior. We all rejoice. He tells us that the gal waiting in his truck is not his wife but his live in girlfriend.

 

“I need to get right with that. When she came out of the restaurant with our food she wanted to leave. I told her I had to go to the chapel. She said I’ll wait here.” He looks at me and says, “When I saw you go into the chapel I wondered if you were the chaplain. When I saw you come out I hoped you would come over. When you spoke I couldn’t move my head it was like it was frozen.”

 

Then he says, “I’m an owner operator. I’ve lost my job, I’m behind in my payments and I’m broke, I had a spot all picked out one and half hours up the road where I was going to drive off and end it all. Then you jumped up on my truck.”

 

Chuck Sonn
Nashville, Tennessee