Acceleration and Awe Inspiring Destination

In the last five weeks I have traveled 3 out of the 5. This is new for me. While the previous 4 years were certainly a time of rest, total rewiring and preparation for this time in my life, having now come into a season of much acceleration I am both challenged and inspired by God's masterful planning.

During the 3rd of my travel weeks when I was flying to Los Angeles to teach a workshop, the Charlotte airport was overrun with scads of stranded people due to bad weather in the North East. After waiting in line for 1 1/4 hours to get up to the ticket counter, I was told I would not be able to make my flight. Suddenly in the midst of this disappointment and inconvenience, my direct flight was shuffled around and I was heading to Philadelphia to catch a flight to LA. Excuse me, but isn't that the wrong direction?

Then to my chagrin my return flight inadvertently was deleted requiring my loitering at the ticket counter again upon returning home. In true fashion my eyes began to well-up when I was then detained at security as my belongings were scoured amidst panicked yelling and the command to freeze, as the security guards pursued a possible gunman near-by. Just your average day!I find that my goal is usually to aim for the most direct path, while the Lord has an entirely different purpose, let alone route in mind.

When I arrived in Philadelphia I managed to catch an earlier flight out to LA. As I stood trying to convince the ticket agent that I should get on the earlier flight, suddenly he informed me that he was upgrading my ticket to first class. Then with a tone that implied that he didn't care who got the seat, he said, "Someones going to get the seat, so it might as well be you." Exactly, I heartily agreed. Still breathing heavily from having not recovered from my jaunt through the airport, a sweet sigh of relief escaped my lips.

Suddenly I was spellbound by the fact that the Lord seemed to take me totally in the wrong direction to get me to His destination, while blessing me with more than I could have anticipated. The consolation out weighed the grueling day of travel by miles. I sat utterly content as I was catered to for more than 5 hours. This fiasco reminded me of the agony of childbirth, without the catering. You puff, pant, sweat and swear, but in the end the prize is so far beyond the pain that it leaves you spellbound by the amazing gift that was birthed.

I was further amazed by the indescribable time I had with old friends from my previous days in Hollywood. Then the day of the workshop arrived and I spent quality time with amazing women, but as some retold frightening stories about me from my former life twenty-four years ago, we laughed at God's faithful hand in all of our lives. Even though it seemed that many of us had taken the long route, the Lord had perfectly brought us to His destination in baffling fashion.

The building point of the week ended as I was able to impart the inspiration and awakening that had transpired in my life into women that were ripe and ready to be birthed into new purpose. The struggle of transition and rearranging of flights was nothing compared to the exceeding joy of watching these women contemplate a bigger God than they may have dared to imagine. That's certainly been true for me! Birthing is never convenient, most certainly sloppy, but it's fruits are immeasurable.