Journey Mercies
October 9, 2009
I’m writing this note at 4:58 AM. In about 15 minutes the alarm will go off, meaning it’s time to get up. I’m up before the alarm, something that often happens on travel days. My internal clock wakes me up early and won’t let me go back to sleep. In a little while we’ll drive a mile to get to the Tupelo airport to catch the 7 AM flight to Memphis where I have only a few minutes to catch an 8:26 AM flight to Detroit where I’ll catch a flight to Albany, NY, arriving around 3:26 PM, where someone will pick me up and drive me about 70 miles north to Word of Life in beautiful Schroon Lake, “high in the Adirondack Mountains,” as Jack Wyrtzen used to say, for the Fall Foliage Conference that begins tonight.
Lately I’ve been reminded about how dicey travel can be when you start at a small airport like Tupelo. Delta has cut back on the flights to and from Tupelo so there is a 7 AM flight to Memphis and a flight later in the day to Atlanta. And there are flights from both cities. Several times lately the morning flight has been canceled, usually because of mechanical issues. When that happens, you have make a mad dash up Highway 78 to Memphis (85 miles away), hoping to get there in time to catch your flight to wherever. We made that mad dash a couple of weeks ago, but it’s exhausting and disconcerting. Our dear friends Al and Jennie Prust planned a special trip to Chicago to attend the KBM banquet last Thursday, but when the flight from Tupelo was canceled, they drove to Memphis and were told they didn’t have time to clear security. And later they were bumped from a 2:30 PM flight, meaning that they made it to Chicago but not in time to attend the banquet. Those things happen, of course, but we felt bad for them.
Meanwhile as you can see from the graphic, there is a major weather system bearing down on Memphis. At the moment we’re dry in Tupelo, but that’s going to change later this morning. I’m just hoping to make my flight to Memphis and hoping the flight to Detroit leaves on time.
Your prayers are appreciated and needed. Because of the amount of travel we do, I take more seriously than I used to the need for “journey mercies.” Those two words accurately describes how the traveler feels as he prepares to embark. There are so many variables when you travel, and almost all of them are out of your control. So as I hop-scotch across the country, I’m keenly aware that “we can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps” (Proverbs 16:9 NLT).
Tucked away in a little-known passage in Ezra 8:18-26, Ezra describes the journey he and the exiles made as they returned to Jerusalem from Babylon. As they prepared to made the long and arduous journey, he gathered the people at the Ahava Canal to fast and pray. “We prayed that he would give us a safe journey and protect us, our children, and our goods as we traveled” (v. 21). That’s the biblical basis for asking for “journey mercies.”
And I’m praying that prayer today, for myself and for all who travel. If all goes well, I’ll be speaking in upstate New York in a little over 13 hours. But between now and then, I need those “journey mercies” to get from where I am to where I’m supposed to be.
I’m happy to know that God oversees the tiniest details of life, including the wind, the waves, the storms, and when the planes take off and when they land. He even watches over the traveler as he rushes through the airport, running from gate C15 to gate D34, to make his connecting flight.
So with all of that said, it’s now 5:22 AM and time to get ready because we leave for the airport in 38 minutes.