Dear Friends,
It is seldom good when you are awakened by a phone call at 12:30
in the morning, but this call was different. It was from the delivery man
standing outside my door with my lost suitcase from a flight I had taken
two days ago. It was good news, the culmination of a trip home from
Destin, Florida where I had spent a week vacationing with Jean and my four
children and 10 grandchildren.
On Friday morning I received a text at 4:00 am that my 6:00
am flight had been cancelled, and there were no reasonably priced flights to
get me back to New Jersey in time for services on Sunday. I discovered, however,
that I could fly reasonably out of Atlanta and get home in time for the Sunday
service at which I was to preach. So, I drove on a six-hour trip with my
daughter to Atlanta to fly home the next day on an early morning flight to
Newark. However, when we arrived in Atlanta at 7:00 pm, much to my
chagrin, I discovered I had lost my wallet with my driver's license, and I had
no other means of identification to enable me pass through airport
security.
On our five-hour trip to Atlanta, we had stopped midway at a Chick
fil-A, in Troy, Alabama, and my only hope was that I might have left my wallet
at the restaurant. When I called, l was elated to discover that someone had
picked up my wallet and turned it in.
Those television Chick-fil-A commercials touting
their significant customer service are true. Graciously, the manager
offered to drive an hour and a half and meet me halfway- Troy was three
hours away- but by now it was after 8 pm. and we were all exhausted, so we
thanked the manager for her kindness and simply asked her to send a
digital copy of my driver's license in the hopes that this would be
sufficient to get me through airport security.
Believe it or not, I had done the same thing a few years before,
so I knew I was taking a big chance that such digital information would be
sufficient to get me through security. In spite of showing a photo
of my driver's license, and some other digitally copied information from my
wallet substantiating my identity, this would not be sufficient for the
security officer. She told me, "You need two or three hard copies of
something with your name on it."
I feverishly poured through the material I had in my briefcase, but
there was nothing that would identify me. As a last resort I casually
pulled out my bible and decided to play the "I am a pastor routine,"
hoping this might soften her resistance, but this had little impact. And then I
noted tucked away in my bible were a couple of copies of past "Leadership
Thoughts" I had written. I pointed to my name and e-mail address at
the top of the devotionals, and I immediately witnessed a change in her
demeaner. She then told me she was a born-again believer, and while normally I
would need three or four hard copies of identifying information, she
smiled and said, "Honey, that will be enough,"
Leaving Jean behind at the airport, I arrived in Newark, sleep
deprived and physically and emotionally exhausted, only to
discover that my suitcase didn't hadn't made the flight.
I share all of this to point out the kindness of people-the
manager of Chick-fil-A as well as the security officer who made an exception to
the security process. I like to think most people are good and kind, and generally
speaking I find this to be true. People are what you expect them to be.
As I reflect on this weekend experience I thought of Paul's
message to the Galatians when he wrote "As we have opportunity, let
us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of faith
(Galatians 6:10).
And all of this made me wonder if I hadn't written those two
Leadership Thoughts that somehow mysteriously found their way into my
Bible, would I still be in Atlanta, looking for a cheap way to get home?
And yes, it is good to be home, even if it means having to be
awakened at 12:30 in the morning by a man standing at your door delivering your
lost suitcase.
Yours in faith and friendship,
Tom
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