The Network

Its always nice to travel to the warm So Cal in January. It really wasn't that warm there this year--but a lot warmer than Indiana! But the most memorable part of the trip was not the weather--it was a 30 minute conversation on the flight out west.

I was cat-napping for a couple of hours on the flight from Chicago to LAX. I walked to the back of the plane to stretch and the flight attendant made comment on my Steeler jersey and how her crew often stayed overnight in Pittsburgh. I made the connection that this summer our Momentum youth conference would be ministering in that area for a week in July.

I have never seen a flight attendant take a half hour "break" to talk. This woman, Donna, was hurting. She expressed her desire to see people follow God but that was not what she had done with her own life. She had grown up in church but wasn't really living at all for the Lord. and now she was very concerned for her son because he did not have a heart for spiritual things. And well she should be concerned.

I shared with Donna what I was preaching on on Sunday morning: that joy comes when we serve Him after we give him our comfort, our past and He becomes our most important relationship. (Luke 9 and 10) Her response was: "I'm not ready to give Him my comfort yet...but I am getting close".

The most interesting part of the conversation was what she shared next. That she had a friend who had been talking to her that she needed to get into God's word. And it hit me. God is orchestrating people around her to speak truth into her life. God wants a dynamic relationship with her. And He was pursuing her.

I promised I would pray for her and told her that she would never really truly have joy until she gave her life to Christ. And I have been praying for Donna each day.

But what strikes me is that there is a network of random people that God is putting in her path to point the way back to Him. I will probably never see Donna again, but someone else in the Network will get to experience the time when Donna repents and finds real joy. I have to admit, I am personally experiencing joy because I am a member of the Network and did my part on that flight.