While traveling for business over the last two years, my eyes opened to a whole new adventure of people, things and events. The speed and ease of such traveling amazes me. The immense and intricate systems, from one airport to another, are overwhelming: planes, trains, buses, shuttles, rental cars, terminals, hubs, baggage claims, parking (both short term and long-term), and several hotels.
At the Dallas-Ft. Worth airport, it is five miles from the entrance of the airport to the rental care hub. Five miles! After you drop off your rental car, you get on a bus and go another five miles to your terminal. Ten miles from entrance to terminal!
It takes the better part of 45 minutes to go completely around the inside of the DFW airport, passing four huge terminals, and if you miss your terminal exit, you have to go all the way around again. It is a city within a city where everything moves fast.
The Dallas-Fort Worth Airport is something right out of the Jetson’s. My elderly mother, who has been mostly house bound for the better part of 25 years, would be knocked off her feet as she took in the changes over the last quarter century. Remember when we use to walk outside to get to our airplane? (okay, some of you won’t remember!!!)
Wow...and that is outside the terminals. Inside, it’s a colossal colleague of shops, restaurants, security checkpoints, and giant golf cart-like cars that take you from one gate to another with flashing lights as well as an annoying beep, beep beeps if you get in the way.
People...a myriad of people of numerous shapes, sizes, colors, ages and nationalities. Many are employed at the airport as well as the thousands who are travel-bound. Those traveling are a mixed bag of assorted vigor and attitudes. Some are excited, others are weary. Some are bored and some are angry. Some are lost and some miss their flight. Some are early; some are late and rush by trying to find someone to point them in the right direction. Some are traveling alone and some with entire families complete with frazzled parents, crying babies, bored teens and shuffling grandparents.
One thing I noticed (while waiting through delay after delay), not many read books. Well, at least the ones that you hold in your hand turn pages and fold down the corner when you stop to hold your place. The I-pods, laptop computers, blackberries, and cell phones help keep people in a frenzied type of existence. They are talking, typing, texting and tapping their feet to the music. Back in the day when you saw someone walking and talking with out some visual sign of a communication device, you thought they were loony and talking to themselves. Not anymore. Just look for that flashing bug like thing sticking out of their ear. People do everything fast and if you are walking slowly, you better watch out!!
People cannot sit still. I had to wait for several hours on my last return trip and I sat in the same seat, reading a paperback book and watching. Several people would settle themselves in a seat, with a drink and maybe some snack, pull out their I-pod or computer, and settle down. It would last all of ten minutes. They would put it all away, get up and walk around, find another seat and start the process again all over again. They would do this ritual several times…all the while talking on their cell phones, or at least opening it to check for the next important text or message.
As I was slowly shaking my head and tsk, tsk, tsking at their obvious inability to make a commitment to one spot…The Spirit of the Lord nudged my soul and I had to think of all the times I set up my little “quiet time” area, complete with hot coffee, post-it notes, pen, highlighter, Bible, bible study and notebook. I even have tissues just in case I cry. I settle down, open the Bible, read one or two pages, answer one or two questions of the Bible study and remember I have a load of wash in the washer to put in the dryer, or I have to call the dentist to make a dental appointment, or think of a commentary I need and up I go to do or find whatever it is that distracted me. Sometimes this can happen several times during my “planned” time and then it is gone. I have to go to work, or to bed or to the next “urgent” project.
I have to wonder if God is slowly shaking His head and tsk, tsk, tsking at my obvious inability to make a commitment to my time with Him. My goal is to offer Him quality time, unfragmented by a bunch of the “urgents” or “to do’s”—not on the run, or always in the car, or at the last minute. Not at the end of the day when I have nothing left mentally or emotionally, and I fall asleep after the first “Dear Father, thank you for thi………….yawn…snort…snore.
Dear Father, forgive me that I allow the foolish things of this world to hinder me from seeking you with quality time, alertness and excited anticipation. Father, slow me down. Help me simplify. Help me rid myself of the tyranny of the urgent that creeps in early in the morning and drains me by day’s end. There will always be deadlines and appointments that are job and life related. I grow weary of the demands that pull me from You and the work You have given me to do. May I have the courage to say no. It is better to say no lovingly than to do begrudgingly. May I pay attention to that nudging of the Holy Spirit that tells me to get up a little earlier, or study at lunch, or quit watching TV…all those things, Dear Father, and more. Help me always to understand that the nudging of the Holy Spirit is your voice…Your nudging…Your wanting to sit with me and spend some time with me. I never have to worry about You being distracted and moving from seat to seat. Father, help me see what is needed, what is necessary and help me:
"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." Psa 46:10
Thank you Father for Your love, wisdom and devotion to me even when I can’t sit still. May I slow down and look to You…always. In the name of Jesus, Amen
(May be subject to copyright)
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