Encouragement
Aisle Seat
It’s not always easy to be a Christian. God sometimes passes out some tough assignments. But then there are times when we find that we’ve served God without even realizing it, and without having made any effort at all.
Whenever I go on a trip I’m even more likely than otherwise to take time out to pray. On a flight from New York City to San Francisco, after praying for my own safety and that of my fellow passengers, and for all who were traveling that day, I added
“and if I can be of any use to You, just ask.” I used to leave this part out, but had recently gotten into the habit of including it.
I settled myself in a window seat, looking forward to the cross-country view.
I don’t fly often, so when I do I really like staring out the window at the cities and towns and rivers far below. A flight attendant asked if anyone would be willing to give up his or her seat so a mother and child could sit together. After a quick moment -- was this a request from God? -- I volunteered.
I wound up in a seat on the aisle. I regretted leaving the window seat, but figured it was a nice thing to do. It seemed so insignificant, though, hardly “of service to God.”
If I hadn’t offered my seat surely someone else would have.
A guy my age had the window seat in my new row, and a slightly younger woman was between us. I smiled and made eye contact. The guy made a friendly response.
The young woman merely smiled and continued to read her book. All three of us had books, but Bill and I introduced ourselves and wound up having a lively conversation. His sense of humor was the kind that brings out my own, and we were keeping ourselves amused, just talking about this and that. From time to time we even got the young woman to laugh. Eventually she closed her book and joined our conversation.
Her name was Anne, and she was mostly a good audience for Bill and me, but did make a few contributions of her own. And so we made our way across the country chatting and joking.
As we began our descent to the airport it came naturally to ask each other why we were going to San Francisco. Business or pleasure? After Bill and I told why we were on the flight, there was a pause.
“And you?” I asked Anne. She took a deep breath and told her story.
It turned out that she’d had to book a flight because her mother had died suddenly and unexpectedly. Her brother had gone to visit their Mom and had found her body.
To make matters worse, the family didn’t get along well with each other, and Anne was not looking forward to what promised to be a complicated and unpleasant family reunion.
Bill and I immediately apologized for being so talkative and drawing her into our conversation when she probably just wanted to be left alone with her book and her thoughts. We felt like insensitive clods. Hadn’t she indicated by her demeanor
that she preferred not to be disturbed?
Anne cut in to say “I was really dreading this flight. Five hours on a plane surrounded by strangers with nothing but a book to distract me from all the thoughts in my head… and I wasn’t feeling up to chatting with my seat-mates, either… at first.
But you guys really helped.”
It wasn’t until we’d all three gone our separate ways and I was thanking God for our safe arrival that I remembered having made the offer to serve God, and realized what had happened. Looking back, it seems to me that God moved me to the row with Anne and Bill, because Anne was in need. I couldn’t see, at the time, how giving up a window seat so that a mother and child wouldn’t be separated was anything more than the kind of courtesy anyone might have offered, or that giving up the window seat wasn’t the end of the matter, but the beginning of something I couldn’t have foreseen.
Sometimes God uses us by simply letting us “be who we are,” in the right place at the right time. If I had hesitated and someone else had volunteered a seat, I might have enjoyed the view out the window, but what about Anne? How would her flight have passed? I’d have missed a chance to be useful to God.
That day was a real lesson to me. Doing God’s will is so satisfying. It leaves you feeling both joyful and peaceful. And it makes you look forward to being of use to God again.
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