Reflections
ReLAX, God Is In Control
By:
As the clock neared 5:00 pm of Sunday, September 17, 2006, I was pretty much done packing my stuff and getting ready to head out. My flight returning back to SJC (San Jose airport) was scheduled to leave LAX (Los Angeles airport) at 7:10 pm. My host and the other Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen & Professionals (BCBP) brothers I spoke with had mentioned to me that the drive to LAX from Long Beach would not take more than half an hour and I naïvely (since I was not familiar with the workings of LAX) reasoned to myself that an hour and a half was more than enough time to make my way through airport security. "Anyway, God is in control," I reassured myself. I was certain that I would make it through with plenty of time to spare, since going through the security at SJC only took about half an hour when I had flown in to LAX the evening prior. Little did I realize then, that God was going to test just how much I believed that He was, in fact, in control of my situation.
As I alighted from the car of my host and extended my thanks for their generosity in hosting me, picking me up and subsequently dropping me off at the airport, I was greeted by the sight of a very long line of people queued up to check-in their bags prior to entering the airport terminal. Though I found myself slightly dismayed at this scene, I continued to tell myself that it was okay. "I'm sure that this line will move along quickly," I thought to myself. After I finished expressing my gratitude and waved goodbye as the car pulled away from the curb, I took my place at the end of the queue.
Quite contrary to my hopes, the line was moving at an atrociously slow pace. I had hoped for a quicksilver pace and the reality I was confronted with was more akin to molasses. The line of people waiting to enter the terminal slowly inched along as the minutes passed. And as the minutes passed, the more my anxiety about making my flight rose.
It got to the point that at around 6:30 pm, I had just about resigned myself to the likelihood that I was going to miss my 7:10 pm flight. At that point I was still standing in line outside the airport, with a sizable number of people still in front of me waiting for their turn to check-in. By this time I was already text messaging my fiancée about my concern that I would most likely be missing my flight back and would need to somehow arrange to take the next flight. And while I continued to pray and tell myself, "don't worry, God is in control," my confidence was rapidly waning with each passing moment.
At approximately 6:45 pm, an airline employee came out and told the people in the queue that self check-in of baggage was available inside the terminal and was faster than the curbside check-in that we were all queued up for. Hence, I joined the rush of people leaving the curbside check-in queue to take advantage of the self check-in option.
Five minutes later, I was finally able to get my luggage tagged and the attendant, to whom I had broached the fact that my flight was scheduled to leave within twenty minutes, simply stated, "you never know," as he attached a bright green "Late Check In" tag to my bag. "Yeah, right," I thought to myself, having pretty much given up on the notion of me still making the flight. "If ever I do make my flight," I negatively thought, "my bag will probably not get loaded in time."
As I left the self check-in counter and proceeded to seek out where to take my bag to be turned over to the baggage handlers, I was again greeted by another line, this time for the x-ray machine that my bag was to go through before it would get sent off to the baggage handlers. "Oh, great, I'll never make it in time!" was my thought.
While this line was relatively short and moved at a relatively decent pace, as the minutes ticked past I could not help but keep thinking that I was not going to make my flight. My first break of the evening finally came when, as I neared the front of the queue to get to the x-ray machine, the attendant for the x-ray machine noticed the bright green "Late Check In" tag attached to the handle of my bag and called me up to the front so he could take my bag and send it through the x-ray machine right away.
I quickly mumbled a, "thank you," to the attendant as I zoomed off, seeking the security checkpoint. Glancing down at my wrist watch, the digital readout proclaimed that it was already past 7:00pm, a scant few minutes before my flight was scheduled to leave. Not knowing how long it would take for me to get past the security checkpoint, and not even knowing how to get to my departure gate from there, I was certain that my flight would be long gone by the time I actually got to the gate. "At best," I thought, "I'll be the last one onto the airplane and everyone else will be giving me dirty looks for delaying the flight." But I still rushed off anyway, not quite running but moving at a fast walk, seeking out the security checkpoint.
As I came to the security checkpoint, I hurriedly took my trusty laptop out of its case, quickly emptied out the contents of my pockets and removed my wrist watch and shoes with great alacrity. Onto the conveyor belt and through the x-ray machine they went, as I rapidly walked through the metal detector. Thankfully, the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) personnel did not find anything that warranted a second look and I went straight through. Still, more time was lost as I returned my laptop to its case, returned stuff to my pockets and tossed my shoes back on. I rapidly walked away from the security checkpoint to search for my departure gate, not even bothering to lace up my sneakers, still hoping against hope that even though my bag would probably not make it, I might still be able to get onto my scheduled flight.
As I located and neared my departure gate, I was expecting to see it already empty, with all the passengers (or at least the vast majority, anyway) already on board the aircraft. Hence I was quite surprised to see a sizable crowd of people still there at the gate. My hopes of making my flight, which had already been considerably dashed so as to be virtually non-existent, began to rise again as I inquired of the people still there waiting if it was, in fact, the correct departure gate for the 7:10 pm flight bound for SJC. They confirmed that I was, in fact, at the correct departure gate and the flight had inexplicably been delayed. A few minutes later, airline personnel announced that the aircraft we were waiting for was running late and was to arrive in about five minutes, at which point they were going to try to rapidly prep the aircraft to head back out to SJC. When I heard this, I thought, "Yes! I get to make my flight and so does my bag!"
It was the first time ever that I found myself thankful that my flight had been delayed.
As I took a seat in the departure area and mumbled a short prayer of thanks to God for allowing me to make my flight, I could hear Him whispering in my heart, "See, I am in control."
Indeed, that evening, God taught me that I had no need to be anxious. I could relax, because He is always in control.
Leonides "Junby" Saguisag, Jr. is a former member of Christ's Youth in Action (CYA) in the Cebu and subsequently the Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU) units, and is now serving with the Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen & Professionals (BCBP) in their Northern California Outreach. He is a software engineer by profession and can be emailed at .
Copyright © 2006 Leonides T. Saguisag, Jr. Used with permission.
