Murphy’s law: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
Not exactly the descriptor most people would like to attach to their vacation notes, but I couldn’t help calling our recent trip to Scotland by this name. It all started out with a 15 minute thunderstorm in London’s Heathrow airport that prohibited thousands of flights from landing and taking off. As a result, we finally arrived at Heathrow well after our connecting flight to Scotland was scheduled to leave. This affected thousands of travelers, and it was well into the next day before we were able to rebook our flight to Scotland. By this time, we had already missed our connector flight to the Orkneys, and the only way for us to catch up to our itinerary was to cancel the entire eastern part of our Scotland visit. Naturally, this resulted in hundreds of lost dollars for flights, hotels, and rental cars. Then, when we finally did arrive in Scotland, our bag did not, and it took it four days to catch up to us. Of course, this was the bag containing all our toiletries, our electronics’ chargers, and naturally, my medication…
I could go on and tell you about the narrow Scottish roads, the accident that blocked the only road to our destination for over 6 hours, the midges, and naturally, the incessant rain, but you would likely get bored by the end of the saga.
I had been feeling kind of cheated out of our wonderful vacation when I read the story of someone whose vacation turned out even worse than mine. This gentleman’s vehicle was caught up in a horrible storm for over two weeks, only to be wrecked on an uncivilized island, causing over 3 months of delay. He lost his bags too, and they never did catch up to him. During his first 24 hours on the island, he was accused of being cursed, he was bitten by a deadly snake, and it took him nearly a year to end up at his final destination, which was, by the way, Rome. And did I mention that he was in chains for the entire trip?
In case you haven’t recognized this man’s story, you can read it in Acts 27 and 28. His name was…Paul.
Don’t these stories sound a bit like our own? We find our lives have come to a sudden standstill, shipwrecked on a desert island called “illness,” or “job loss” or “divorce” or “abuse” or “victimization,” and we find ourselves stranded with no way to ever again catch up to our itineraries. We feel cheated, frustrated, tempted to ask, “Why God? Why did You let this happen?”
If you read the story of Paul carefully, however, you will not find any record of complaint. He doesn’t get upset, there’s no bitterness, no cursing God, no “Why God, why me?” In fact, we see Paul encouraging the men in the storm, shaking off the deadly viper, healing the governor’s father as well as many other sick people on the island, and we can be sure that when Paul left, the entire population of this island knew about Jesus.
Maybe we could learn some important lessons from Paul about using our less-than-ideal circumstances as jumping boards for blessing others, for demonstrating the love and power of God for all people…What do you think?
“…who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” (2Cor 1:4, NKJV)
Maybe I should rename my “Murphy’s Law” vacation to Scotland as my “God’s blessing” vacation…Oh, and the travel insurance my husband insists on taking out before each trip is actually worthwhile…
In His love,
Lyn
Lynona Gordon Chaffart, Speech-Language Pathologist, mother of two, Author — “Aboard God’s Train — A Journey With God Through the Valley of Cancer”, Author and Moderator for The Nugget, a tri-weekly internet newsletter, and Scriptural Nuggets, a website devoted to Christian devotionals and inspirational poems, with Answers2Prayer Ministries. Follow Lyn on Twitter @lynchaffart.