Our crew was deadheading (flying as a passenger) to work a flight out of Florida. I was assigned a window seat and I prefer the aisle. I feel trapped by the window and I have a mommy bladder so don’t want to inconvenience everyone with my “scuse me…pardon me…sorry, yes, i have to go. yes, now… so I asked the gate agent, “Do you have an exit row seat, bulkhead or aisle or better yet first class?” “Nope, we are completely full. Every other seat is already taken.”
Carrie, another flight attendant on my crew, and I boarded the airplane early and got situated (I’ll call Carrie since I didn’t ask her permission to write about her) She and I were on the same row. She was on the aisle and I was at the window. A big bald tattoo guy does the scuse me/pardon me/sorry drill with us because he’s situated in the dreaded middle seat- right between us. Poor big old bear of a guy. His long legs were twisted uncomfortably under the seat in front of him. He held his thick fully tattooed arms straight in front of him like we had cooties but really i think out of respect for our space and his own. #muchappreciated He had his hands placed as if they were shackled and I found out later maybe they were.
Carrie started chatting with him. “Would you like my aisle seat?” “Nah,” he said graciously. I was thinking, “I’ll take it” :) She then asked him how his day was going. Not too great. He had missed his earlier flight and had been sitting in the airport for several hours waiting on this overly full flight. He barely got on. He was trying to get to Florida to visit his niece and sister. He talked about how he was once close with his niece but now that she was 12, he didn’t really know how to interact with her. She wasn’t a little girl but growing into a woman and her dad wasn’t in her life.
I had an inkling God had set all this up. I shared that this was a critical time in his niece’s life. As the only male role model in her life, if he didn’t pursue her and treat her like a princess, then she would get attention elsewhere and maybe God placed him in her life for this reason…to show a Father’s love to her. I felt like that was a message that I really needed to deliver and I did so CHECK MARK, God. Done! so now I’m going to sleepy night night on my window seat so I won’t think about going to the bathroom…but God had other plans.
When I mentioned God, he winced so I asked him. It doesn’t seem like you believe and I’m completely okay with that. I had a clue with the demons that were snaking down his arms that was the case ;) I think he was normally a man of few words but God’s peace had loosened his tongue for that flight…. He shared that he respected people who did believe but he didn’t share in that faith then he told me point blank, “I have a problem with God. If he is so good and if He IS real then why is there so much suffering? Why doesn’t he stop it?”
I didn’t know what to say and that is when I am SO thankful for the Holy Spirit and the wisdom that comes through that Spirit that lives in me. Why DOES God allow so much suffering? There’s so much evil in this world.
I shared that God left this world under our control and we’ve really f-ed it up but we have His power if we ask for it. Just like you with your niece. It wasn’t God’s plan for her dad to abandon her - that was his choice - but then she has you and you can choose to love her, cherish her, treat her like a father would. You can protect and show her how a man should treat her some day. Your love, if you choose to show it, will alter the destiny of her life. If you don’t then that will change the outcome in her life. The responsibility to bring love, peace, power is given to US by God. He values our choice so strongly to love Him and others that He won’t take that choice away. So when we ask God, why do you allow so much suffering? Why is there so much evil? We really need to be asking ourselves, why do we allow it? We can make a difference to the people God places in our lives. We can’t save the world but we can bring love to those He places in our path.
All of that talking had exhausted my bladder so I did the scuse me/pardon me. While I was away, I felt like God gave me an interpretation for his tattoos so I shared what I felt like the Holy Spirit showed me about the star on his wrist and the demons complete with horns running down inked down his arms. He was a warrior who had authority over the enemy. He could see the demons of the world and God had placed him as a protector of life. He had battled with the devil and overcome his own demons. The half naked lady on his arm represented a love lost but if he would ask God to bring His love to him, she would. He didn’t tell me whether I was right on or completely off but he did nod several times.
A couple of things I learned:
Our inconvenience, like mine with being shoved in a window seat on a crowded airplane, may be because God has intentionally set us up to interact with others and share His truth and love. I could get pissy or look for God’s goodness in that situation.
The other flight attendant, Carrie, loved Jesus too. God placed him smack dab in the middle of His love in us so he could get an answer to this guy’s beef with him. I know God was working on this guy’s heart. God had “arrested” this guy by his two flight attendants who fly the friendly skies… I had the impression that God’s words and love had set him free that day and taken the shackles off his hands…that he would fulfill his destiny of being a protector of women and God would bring him someone to love and be loved by. Look for opportunities like this today. The Holy Spirit will make your words like arrows that hit the intended target.
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