close call

Growing up I have spent a lot of time airports, but yesterday was one of the craziest airport experiences I have ever had. Heather came up from Southeastern this weekend to visit for a few days. Her flight was scheduled to leave at 10:25 am on Monday. Because of a meeting with an admissions counselor, to discuss transfer information, that went late, we did not leave North Central until after 9:15. With some aggressive driving, we pulled into the parking ramp at 9:30...55 minutes until takeoff.

The parking ramp was very full for a Monday morning so after driving around for a few minutes I thought it would be better for me to drop Heather off. I told her to take her purse and go get in line and I would park and bring her suitcase and meet her at the ticket counter. I was forced to park on the 7th level. What I didn't know was that right where I had dropped Heather off was a separate ticket counter for Northwest flights. She just assumed I meant for us to meet there since that is right where I dropped her off.

Well little did I know that she was somewhere other than the main ticket counter, so Heather's suitcase and I made our way to the main terminal. When I got on the shuttle to go that way I get a call from her on my cell phone. She wanted to know where I was at. After informing her I was on my way to the main terminal to meet her, she informed me she was at the other check in place for Northwest flights. So as the time is now 9:45 and she is boarding in 15 minutes, and I have her suitcase. I begin to get nervous. I take the shuttle back to where I thought she was at and receive another phone call. She just wanted me to know that she could not find her drivers license. Now my nervousness just turned to panicking.

I jump off the tram and think I know right where she is at so I call and tell her I will be there in 2 minutes. Uh oh...the escalator is under repair. At this point I am not thinking, just reacting. So I pick her suitcase up, and couldn't believe she had packed only for a weekend, and bolted UP and DOWN escalator. It was physically, one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. I barely made it up and then didn't see Heather anywhere. I had thought wrong. She was not here and I could barley breath and my legs were shaking from the workout and the panicking that was setting in. I call Heather, who is almost in tears because she cannot find her ID, I have her suitcase, we are still who knows how far apart from each other, and its now 9:55. The plane is boarding.

Luckily at this point I was a regular on the shuttle so I rode that back to the terminal and had Heather just meet me there. We are finally reunited and she checks in while I stand in line for security. However, the line is not moving and looks like it could be an hour to get through security. So the lady at the counter tells Heather to go to the skyway security checkpoint for Northwest flights. That happens to be right where I just was. So once again I am on the shuttle for the fourth time in 2o minutes, only I am not alone this time, thankfully.

We get off the shuttle I told her that she needs to be ready because we now need to go UP the DOWN escalator. She simply asked me, "why?" She asked that because she saw the huge sign that said ELEVATOR AROUND THE CORNER, that I had somehow missed. Only I would not think to know that every escalator in America has an elevator somewhere close by. So we rode the elevator up one flight and I said goodbye and watched her quickly go through security...at 10:15. "Wow...ten minutes to spare, nice timing," I think to myself.

The application is this. I have a lot of airport experience WITH my dad who is a pro at traveling. But I have had limited experience by myself. That is like our relationship with Christ. We can only experience Christ so much through other people and until we experience what He can do for us first hand we will never really know what it's like. God is so much better when he works directly through us and not through someone else. Just like now I feel much more experienced in the airport since I did not have my dad to navigate and problem solve for me. We must experience God on our own in order to be the best we can be.