Devotionals

Row TwentyFive

by Stanley McMahon
09/20/15
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Last Saturday we had a couple of friends round for dinner. We hadn’t seen them in years and between us, we couldn’t quite remember exactly when the last time had been, but that didn’t matter. Although we had been separated by continents, time and absence, it was as if we had only seen them a week before. That’s true friendship.

Our conversation covered the health of ageing parents, their travel, current occupations and how things had changed for us over the years, other friends and then, not surprisingly, came back to families and stories about experiences we had had in the interim.

My friend Rodney has the ability of being able to put things succinctly, and commonly adds a twist of humour when describing a situation. On this occasion he told a story about a plane journey he had taken. Now Rodney hates flying, so he only does it when he has to. When he arrived at the departure gate the stewardess looked at his ticket and promptly directed him to take a seat ‘over there’. He found that, apart from another female passenger, there was nobody else. ‘What are you doing here?’ he asked his fellow traveller. ‘I don’t know,’ came the reply, ‘I was just told to sit here and wait.’ The awkward normality of two strangers seated side by side resumed as they both waited in silence until all the others had boarded. He was then signalled to join the rest of the passengers on the flight which he duly did.

As usual he was greeted by the cabin crew and began to look for his seat. The ticket informed him that he was in row 25. He started counting and walking towards the back of the plane. Twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, toilet, twenty-six, twenty-seven. Logic told him that unless the toilet was a Tardis, there was something he was missing. He addressed the stewardess about the missing row and his resultant dilemma, since there was no standing room catered for and it could be a long flight with no seat.

The attendant assured him that everything was fine and led him to a stairwell that he had missed. Row twenty-five was in first class. He climbed the stairs and a whole new world of travel opened to him with space, privacy, food, and comfort in abundance.

As I thought about Rodney’s story of the unexpected with his emotions ranging from uncertainty to concern and ultimately through to joy, it felt like a commentary on many of our faith experiences. Another friend of mine, Alan Wilson, once said that God often goes to a lot of trouble to get us into trouble.

Take our Old Testament friend Joseph for example, a teenager who caused a lot of tension in the family – nothing new there - but who famously went from the uncertainty of being left for dead in a pit by his brothers, to concern in the prison that he was going to be forgotten, to the joy of being raised to a new level and ultimately being reunited with his family. Uncertainty, concern and joy are often stepping stones to maturity in the walk of faith.

The Psalmist invites us to ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good.’ As we walk by faith and trust the Lord, He will undoubtedly lead into places of uncertainty. He is committed to stretching, teaching and changing us so that He will finally be able to mould us into Christ-likeness. The tension lies in the fact that we resist the pain of change rather than embracing it. That’s natural, but contrary to Scripture’s exhortations.

One passage that has been a source of challenge to me in recent months is James’ declaration that we should consider it all joy when we face our variegated trials. He basically says the only way to adopt and apply this radical worldview is to seek God for wisdom. Now that makes sense because the underlying understanding is that we need to see difficult circumstances and trials the way God sees them - as opportunities to work deeply in our lives. He wants to move us from uncertainty and concern to joy so that our trials become the stairway to our Row Twenty-Five. He probably won’t bring us to a place of greater luxury, but He does promise His presence, His courage, His power, His wisdom and His kind of comfort. Now that’s what I call travelling first class.