Journey Mercies.

In the past 2 weeks, Lindsey and I have had some rather ridiculous travel experiences.

On April 10th (Friday) we were supposed to fly from Philly to Atlanta, where we would connect to fly to Phoenix and stay at my mom's before driving to Tucson the following morning. We arrived at the airport at 5 for our 6 o'clock flight. I couldn't get the electronic check-in kiosk to work (I forgot that you can swipe your driver's license...) and got in line to check-in at the desk. After waiting for 15 minutes or so, we reach the desk. The guy checks us in right away, but says "You know, you can check-in at the kiosks." I was about to respond when he just about cuts me off and says, quite sternly, "You just wasted 10-15 minutes standing in line. Why don't you people ever listen to me!?" I was dumbfounded. He gave us our tickets and we left.

We got to the gate and there's all kinds of mess in Atlanta. Like, tornadoes and stuff. They have a complete ground stoppage. So after about 2 1/2 to 3 hours and exhausting many options, I work it out for us to get a flight to Cincinnati at 6am the following morning and then to Phoenix. Sweet. As we're walking away from the terminal, I realize I lost my fleece. I checked every place where we'd been sitting and the bathrooms. Nothing. It's gone. Great. We've been at the airport for like 4 hours and all we did was not leave and lose my fleece. Ugh.

We wake up at 3am and get to the airport around 3:45. We get to the gate and what's hanging over a seat by itself with no one around it? Yep. My fleece. It was ridiculous. We also bumped into some of my mom's friends so we got to fill them in on where we were going and stuff.

We land in Cincinnati and get to our next gate. We're told they've downsized the plane by 30 seats and that Lindsey and I are getting bumped and flying to Denver first. We were compensated with vouchers for $200 to Delta. On the way to Denver we met an awesome woman named Antoinette who was also a Christian. We had some cool and interesting talks with her. She grew up in a missionary family in Africa, cool stories.

After that it was pretty much smooth-sailing to Phoenix. We landed in Denver, ate lunch, and flew out. Flying back to Philly was uneventful (the good kind).

All that was ridiculous. But then, this past Monday I took a train to DC to meet Lindsey. About and hour north of Staunton we see break lights. Everything stops. This had just happened. Like, literally 5 minutes before. We stopped around 11:40 and did not leave from that spot until 5:30am. We sat still for 6 hours. It was absurd. We got to Lindsey's apartment at around 8am, 13 1/2 hours after she left to pick me up. Wow.

The cool part of all this is seeing what didn't happen to us because of all the ridiculous turns along the way. Like, if we'd flown to Atlanta, I'd never have gotten my fleece back. And if we hadn't been bumped to Denver, we'd have never gotten our vouchers (will will cover a flight in May to a friend's wedding...) and we would have never met Antoinette and has solid conversation.

My train leaving Philly the other night was like 10 minutes late. If it had been on time, we could have been in that wreck. Like, 3 people died in that huge wreck that made us sit there for 6 hours.

I'll take sitting still and sleeping uncomfortably in a car for 6 hours over dying in a fiery highway blaze any day.

God is good.

Engaged!

On Easter morning I took Lindsey out for a sunrise walk in Catalina State Park outside Tucson, Arizona. It was cloudy when we got there (around 6am), so the "sunrise" part was up in the air. We decided we'd just go for a hike for a bit, so we picked a trail off the map and started walking. Lindsey was snapping pics of the various flowers and cacti that lined the trail. I'd spotted this wild looking tree at the trail head that I wanted to check out (Lindsey loves trees). We intended to read the resurrection story and pray while were out there and figured the tree would be a prime spot, except it was right next to the parking lot. I didn't want people wandering by or anything.

After walking/exploring for about an hour, I suggested we pick a different spot to read since the tree was so close to the road. Lindsey agreed, and after like 2 seconds, points and says "how about the rock out there." Perfect. This large rock in the middle of a field. It was a great spot.

We sat and read the 4 resurrection accounts. The Lindsey read a great passage from John 16 where Jesus talks about his death. The part that jumped out at me was the one where he says "I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy" (vs 20). I loved hearing Lindsey read it. The verse was so refreshing. The world celebrates the most unnecessary and vile things, and Jesus promises that our grief will turn to joy. He's conquered it. What a moment of peace it was out there.

I then asked Lindsey if we could stand while we prayed to "get a better view" of the mountains around us. I prayed a very pointed prayer, thanking God for Lindsey and for conquering death in all it's forms. I said "amen."

I opened my eyes, and we were looking right at each other. My heart was pounding. I told Lindsey that I loved her. I waited another 2 seconds, checked my footing on the rock (didn't want to fall off), then, pulling the ring* out of my pocket, got down on my right knee and asked Lindsey to marry me. She gasped as I got down and replied "of course!"

I heeded the prophet Beyonce's call. It fit (and fits) perfectly. We stood there in each other's arms for several more minutes, took some pics, then made our way back to the tree, where we took some more pictures.

We smiled a lot.

*The ring has a garnet, Lindsey's birthstone, as the main piece. It's got 3 diamonds on each side of it, and a tiny little diamond on the front and back of it.

Children on Empire.

Uh oh. Another post from the God's Politics blog.

This article was great. He totally points out that kids in his class from affluent areas lose out on Jesus' message to the poor because they can't relate to it. Meanwhile, the kids that grew up in less-than-desirable neighborhoods totally resonated with it. He even mentions how the affluent kids ignored the other kids' reflections on Jesus.

Uh oh.