PATIENCE

It's just the craziest thing. I was just saying to someone the other day that PATIENCE was probably my weakest Fruit of the Spirit, but that I was working on it hard and felt that God was helping me with that.

Well ... on Wednesday I had a trip scheduled to Colorado Springs to visit Every Home for Christ (http://www.ehc.org/) and be part of a seminar they were having at their HQ (which is where I'm writing this from now).

As I was ready to leave home for the airport Wednesday a.m., I got a call saying my flight to Denver had been cancelled due to mechanical problems. I was going to fly into Denver, then drive down to Colorado Springs. So, I called the UNITED AIRLINES 800-line and amazingly, got a real person. They very nicely hooked me up with a flight directly to Colorado Springs at the same time my original flight to Denver had been scheduled. Even better. This was all going to work out GREAT.

When I got to the airport that morning, it was a madhouse - as bad as I've ever seen O'Hare. Come to find out, AMERICAN AIRLINES had cancelled several hundred flights that very day - something about all their planes having to make the grade with the airline industry. I took it all in stride - after all, I had a seat on a plane, right?

Well, when I got to the ticket check-in, it seemed they didn't have me on their flight list. I explained to them the situation and duly pounded my fist on the counter (nicely, of course), but to no avail. I had lost my supposed seat on the Colorado Springs flight and was now vying with all the AMERICAN AIRLINES passengers trying to get seats on other flights all day long.

Not to worry, said they, I would be put at the top of the stand-by list for the next flight to Denver, scheduled just 1.5 hours later. OK. But when I got to the gate, there were 45 other people also on stand-by. Still didn't bother me; after all, I was at the 'top of the stand-by list,' remember? But when the stand-by list flashed on the wall LCD, I found my name #17 out of 45. When I inquiried, I discovered it had something to do with preferred customers (not me), high ranking mileage customers (not me), VIPs (not me), people who don't pound their fists on airport counters (not me) and blonde-haired people (not me).

To make matters worse and to add insult to injury, they actually called 20 people out to stand in a magical circle -- people who, ostensibly, would be getting on the flight to Denver. I was in that group, lil' ol' excited me. But they only put FIFTEEN of those people on, assuring the rest of us that we would be rolled over to the next stand-by flight to Denver, scheduled for take off in "JUST TWO HOURS!"

So, I hung around the airport -- paid $6 to get online but never actually did because their wireless was way too slow -- read some -- dozed -- prayed -- watched people -- ate junk food -- felt my impatience growing by the second -- and went to the NEXT airline counter for the NEXT flight to Denver. When the passenger stand-by list popped up, I saw that I had moved from #17 to #38 - and now there were 71 people on stand-by total.

I didn't make that flight either. There was yet ANOTHER Denver flight just 40 minutes later, so I rushed to THAT airlines counter and found there were now 162 stand-by passengers and I had slipped to #78. DIDN'T THEY KNOW WHO I WAS!!!?????

There was ONE more flight that day to Denver - leaving 2 hours later yet. I opted OUT of that voluntarily, rather than show up and find myself #567 on a stand-by list of 2,336 - and with a better chance to win the Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes than get on that next flight.

So I went BACK to the original UNITED AIRLINES ticket check-in desk to see if I could DEFINITELY be ticketed on the first flight out Thursday morning. After an hour of standing there, I got my ticket. So it was back home with me - 50 minute drive. I got home about 9:30 p.m. and was dead tired and defeated and VERY impatient with the whole day and flopped right in bed.

Yeah - we're not done yet. The first flight out Thursday took off at 6 a.m., so I was up before 3 a.m. to shower, get dressed and drive to O'HARE - park in Economy Lot Z - take the bus to the shuttle - and take the shuttle to the terminal. Sigh. I got stopped at security for the mysterious piece of metal that always seems to be imbedded somewhere in my body whenever I go thru those detectors, even though I'd already taken off anything and everything that even remotely resembled metal. After re-dressing, I made my way to the terminal, ticket firmly grasped in a white-knuckled hand - and steam beginning to rise from both ears.

I thought I'd get a little breakfast at the terminal McDonald's, since I had an hour to wait, so I got a #4 (you don't have to know what that is). The point is, when I sat down to bite into it, it was a #2. ARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

Then -- onto the plane. It was one of those planes with 2 seats - 3 seats - and 2 seats (7 seats across in each row). Of course, MY seat - all 6'5" of me - was situated in the CENTER of the 3 seat grouping. The large TV screen in front of us on the bulkhead, showing episodes of "THE OFFICE" and "30 ROCK" throughout the 2.5 hour flight, was duly obstructed by the tallest man I've ever seen sitting 2 rows directly in front of me. His whole bald head covered the entire screen, successfully blocking my view. The man ONE ROW ahead of me, put his seat in the full-recline position the moment we levelled off and LEFT it there - sound asleep - all the way till touchdown. The flight attendants didn't realize as they passed by those 42 times prepping for landing, that his seat was fully reclined. Last but not least, there were only two children on the entire flight - you know where they were sitting, don't you? Uh-hm. Directly BEHIND me. The parents didn't seem to notice or care that the little boy was un-rhythmically kicking the back of my seat the WHOLE FLIGHT - like water torture --- and the little girl had a delightful habit of crying out, "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy," until MOMMY decided to pay attention to her.

When we touched down, mercifully, in Denver - the weather was 25 degrees and it was snowing. They got 4 inches here today. On April 10th.

"The Fruit of the Spirit is ... Love, Joy, Peace, PATIENCE ... "