Interesting flight

Well....I had an interesting flight to Amarillo Sunday night.

This was one of the tiny, American Eagle jets. Anytime I fly American Eagle I pray to sit by someone small, or someone I know because of the close confines. I found my seat next to this tiny young lady and she gladly let me have the aisle seat. We struck up a conversation, and i asked her "so what do you do for living?" her reply......"I dance at a club." I'm not sure what my face looked like, but i know it couldn't have been as shocked as hers looked when she asked me...."what do you do?" and i replied..."i'm a pastor." you think i sweat bad when i'm leading music........

After we both came to grips with the situation, we had a great conversation. She's a 27 year old mother of a 10 year old, and 9 year old. She's been married twice (4 years each) and is currently living with her boyfriend with no intentions of marrying again. I asked her what she would be doing if she wasn't dancing. She begin to share with me the things that she had always dreamed of doing. She said she feels like she will probably quit dancing in the next two years, so that her kids are not ostracized because of her.

She then told me about her 10 year old daughter. In her words....the kid is a "religious freak." She said she reads her bible constantly, is always sharing with her mom, goes to church with friends, etc...

This led to a great conversation about the love and grace of a God that created us and has an incredible plan for our lives. I told her that even when we use the gifts and talents he's given us for things that He did not plan on....his love doesn't stop. She was quite relieved. She shared with me some stories of negative church experiences that she had experienced. You can imagine the looks she gets when walking into a small town church. And you can imagine the anger she has of being judged by these people, but yet "working" for several of them every week. It was really a cool conversation, and as we were finishing she told me that she had never really felt like God loved her before, but maybe she was wrong. I told her that sometimes it pays to listen to our kids. We said goodbye and left the plane.

As I was standing at baggage claim, another lady came up, introduced herself and told me she had been sitting in front of me and prayed for me the entire flight. Her husband was sitting with her, but he was sleeping. He is a pastor here in Amarillo. Isn't it cool that in a plane full of assigned seats. This young lady who never really felt like God loved her, was surrounded by people who love the Lord, pray for each other, and recognize that we're all jacked up and that God loves us anyway and can use us in spite of who we are, not because of who we are.

If you happen to read this Ann.....we're praying for you and your family. And Ashley...keep talking to your mom. I'm out.....