"A $50 Lesson in a Frozen Land" (November 2003)

Thanks for your faithful prayers and support while I was in Alaska. We definitely put on some miles during the short trip. In addition to the 8 hours of flying time, we based out of Fairbanks and did training seminars in Delta Junction which is 2.5 hours southwest and Healy, which is 2.5 hours southeast. The roads were unseasonably icy - they are usually packed with snow, but because of the "warm" (yea right!) temperatures driving conditions were much more precarious.

On our last day of training I had the privilege of training three adult small group leaders representing three different churches. After about an hour of training/sharing, two of the trainees were broken and in tears! As I encouraged them to never retreat from the call to make disciples, one of the ladies confessed that she had been ready to give up. Her husband was the Associate Pastor of the church and she taught an adult ladies class. When her husband told her about the training, she said, "NO WAY! I've got plans with my girlfriends and the last thing I need is to waste time listening to some boring lecture." Just before our lunch break the lady shared with me that she was convinced that the Lord had brought me there to train/encourage/equip her. She went to the phone and called her friends and told them that she would not be making their outing . . . she had something more important to attend to! Throughout the day we shared and interacted as a group and the three left with all of my training materials and a firm resolution to train their churches and replicate the infused passion that they had received. I was so blessed because I know that it only takes one person that's committed to investing in lives to make a difference. I praise God for my Sunday School teacher back in '91 taking the time for me!

The next morning we loaded up and hit the airport at 5 am with plenty of time to make our 6:30 flight . . . or so we thought. Once we got to the front of the line, the airline representative told me that my bag was overweight and that I'd have to pay a $50 surcharge or unload some stuff right away. There were about 20 people behind me in line and they were already calling to board my flight so I was upset and went ahead and paid rather than cause the rest of those people to miss the flight. I was steamin mad though because I had unloaded most of my materials in Alaska and was not charged for extra weight on the way up. So I grumbled all the way onto the plane and got seated. I couldn't get my mind off of the $50 because I look at my money as a stewardship. So I sat there staring out at the dark and icy runway and finally decided to look in the Scripture and see what it said about "anger". Boy, did God ever let me have it! "Be angry and sin not." "Put away all anger, bitterness, and wrath" "the one who says 'you fool' is in danger of the fire of hell". As I read verse after verse I came under deep conviction. Then I read, "Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." After several minutes pondering the whole situation I pulled out my CD player and started listening to some great worship music and humming along - much to the chagrin of the guy sitting next to me I'm sure. But within minutes my entire disposition had changed. My heart changed from being cold, hard and icy like the runway that we'd left a half hour before to being warm and glad. As I worshiped the bitterness melted into mercy and the anger into gratitude. And to think that I could learn such a valuable lesson for a mere $50! The freedom I felt after worshiping through the trial was priceless.