For some reason that sounds like it should be a title to a song or movie. I’ll work on the song if you work on the movie. The first leg of our adventure has commenced and we’ve already had our first miracle. No joke. I had a hunch this trip was going to be full of His goodness. You know God’s good, right? So good we can’t even imagine. He’s not mad, He’s got nothing but love for you. And by the way, He likes you, just the way you are. And lastly, He’s always in a good mood : )
Back to the story. So, all of us were going to get our TSA Pre Check which means you can skip traditional security and go through a much shorter and abbreviated line. It’s a game changer. So…I set up an appointment and went in about a month ago. Now, I thought I knew where it was and about a 15 minute drive. Something told me to Google Map it, so I did and sure enough not where I thought it was. Google Maps had me showing up about 10 minutes late. I assumed that wasn’t a good idea to be late. So I hopped in my souped up Honda and zoomed over to their office. I got there earlier than I expected but I was wasn’t on time. I go racing in and the lady immediately sternly tells me to go to the bathroom and wash my hands. Weird, right? Clean hands help with the fingerprinting. I hurriedly washed my hands and wouldn’t you know it, now there’s a line. I must have looked like a dirt ball because she didn’t make any of these folks to do it. They did look pretty clean. Its’ finally my turn in line, I give her my info and she tells me, “I’m sorry sir but you are too late for your appointment and I cannot get you in. If you still want to get in I can work you in.” I reply, “Um mam, you had me wash my hands and then I had to stand in line.” Her amazing response, “Well sir, those took less than 7 minutes so you’d still be late.” When she said that I looked around the room and was waiting to see cameras and the cast from Punk’d (I know a bit over dramatic). Is this really happening⁈ I regroup and I’m thinking this sucks but she will work me in and I’ll sit around for a half hour. She informs me that it’ll be at least an hour with a heavy emphasis on at least. We exchange some words and thank God I showed some restraint and left before I said what I really wanted to say. It wasn’t going to be good. Who knew 7 minutes at any governmentalish organization even mattered. The thing that chaps me is that if I would have gotten to her by 11:40 there is NO WAY I would have walked right in for that appointment. I guarantee I would have waited more than 7 minutes. Feels pretty good to get that off my chest.
Now I’m forced to reschedule. No big deal right? Wrong again. First appointment available is 3.5 weeks later. That puts it on the Thursday before we leave which means I need a 3 day turnaround and still need to get my Pre-Check info into the airline. I checked my status on Monday and Tuesday with no results. I had resigned to not having it and being the slacker of the group. Wednesday morning comes around and meet at the airport at 500 a.m. We get checked in and get our boarding passes. Kyle looks down at my boarding pass and notices that I have TSA/pre check on my ticket just like he and everyone else on the team. I’m speechless. Everybody else on the team had to call or go online to input their TSA/pre check information. Mine, just showed up out of the blue. No joke. No one throughout the process even knew where I was going. It’s so easy to rationalize things like this. How does it go from no approval late Tuesday night to approval on my boarding pass just showing up on Wednesday at 5:00 a.m.? Doesn’t make any sense. Miracles can be hard to spot if you’re not looking for them and willing to accept them. These next 10 days we will be looking and I have a feeling it’s going to be chalked full of them. Join the hunt. Pray expectantly, watch closely and allow Him to show you how good of a mood He’s really in.
Right now, 2 hours to L.A. Then a few hour layover followed by the big dog to Shanghai. Appreciate all your prayers.
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