Since When was I Most Important?

Over Winter Break I had the opportunity to fly out to Illinois to speak at a youth lock-in event. It was quite the adventure as I surrendered every ounce of possible control.

The journey to Illinois was enough of an adventure in and of itself. My travels were slowed down quite a bit and I spent a lot of time waiting. I experienced almost every possible delay throughout the trip…delayed departure, delayed in the air (literally flying around in circles), delayed at the gate waiting for other planes to leave, delayed every hour on the hour and then every five minutes, delayed for weather, delayed for service members, cancelled flights. Well, you get the point! There was a lot of waiting. And a lot of angry customers. But nothing anyone could do about the situation. So, we had to keep on waiting.

God used that time to grasp my attention and teach me some incredible lessons.

As my flight from San Jose to Chicago finally took off two hours after the original time of departure, I realized that I had read my boarding pass wrong. I did not have the 50 minute time block between my arrival and next departure like I thought I did. Instead, the flight I was on was scheduled to land right as the next one was scheduled to leave. Of course, by the time I made this connection in my head, it was too late to check on the status of my next flight. So I had to just sit and pray (and prepare my boots to be transformed into running shoes if need be) until they finally announced connecting flight information before landing. I was going to be able to make my flight after all, but I had to be really quick. However, I was near the back of the plane, so the unloading process felt like it was taking years to accomplish. I anxiously waited as everyone leisurely grabbed their bags from the overhead compartment. In my impatience, I wanted to ask everyone to move out of my way so I could begin my sprint, to my gate, so I could catch my flight. In this moment God used a simple question to shift my perspective back in alignment with Him:

“When and how did you become any more important than anyone else around you?”

After pondering this question within the depths of my heart I sat back down and decided to let whatever was about to happen, happen! (Which ended up being more waiting)

I tell you this story for two reasons:

1.       I need the reminder.

A reminder of how faithful God was throughout my trip, but also a reminder that I need to be faithful to the calling He has placed on my life to put others before myself and to shine the love of Jesus in all things, not just when I feel like it.

2.       We all need this reminder.

It’s easy to put others first when we want to put others first. But the times it may matter most are the times when we don’t actually want to. I know I am not the only one left in this world who tends to care about getting my way far too often.

It’s easy to agree with the idea that we need to put others first. That is, until someone else interferes with our wants or expectations. It’s easy to put others first, until they cut you off on the freeway, or take their sweet time when you are in a hurry, or when you are the customer so that somehow means you are entitled to more humanity than someone else.

Trust me when I say that this is an area that God needed to get my attention in. Not just that day, but every day! Maybe you have got this down…in that case, teach me your ways! I wonder what the world would be like if we all did this a little bit more!

I’m not saying you aren’t important…you are! You are so important! What I am saying, however, is that you aren’t the only one who is!