Airport stress? Prayer can help!
While I was traveling home with my older brother, our flight out of Boston was delayed.
I’d just attended a youth summit hosted by The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and found this delay very disappointing. I really wanted to get home and tell our family about the trip.
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An hour later, it was announced that our flight would be delayed three more hours. It was late, and my brother and I were exhausted. We called our parents and told them what was going on. After a long stretch of waiting that strained our patience, we were told that our flight had been canceled. I was really upset. I had to attend a six-hour marching band rehearsal the next day, and it was getting close to midnight.
“I just want to go home!” I thought. Another thought immediately followed that one: “You are home, Sarah. You’re in the kingdom of heaven.”
At first I thought that if I prayed enough, our flight would no longer be canceled. Then I asked myself if that’s really how prayer works.
Immediately, I knew this was a thought from God because I felt peace come over me. Oftentimes, we think about home as a specific location, but what this thought said to me was that being home really means being in the presence of God. Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew in the Bible that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (4:17). This is a promise that God and His goodness are always with us. That’s where we live. This thought inspired me to pray about our flight situation.
At first I thought that if I prayed enough, our flight would no longer be canceled. Then I asked myself if that’s really how prayer works. I used to believe that prayer was not only reliable but predictable: You pray about a problem and then it goes away. This thought almost made me laugh out loud. I realized that outlining what you feel should happen isn’t really prayer. Mary Baker Eddy explains in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “That which we desire and for which we ask, it is not always best for us to receive. In this case infinite Love will not grant the request” (p. 10).
Momentarily distracted by my desire to get home, I had forgotten that God truly is governing everyone, including me. I knew God would take care of me—and all the other passengers—no matter what.
Many people were tense and angry, yelling at the desk attendant and asking why our flight had been canceled. I prayed to see everyone as loved and loving, since God is Love and created every one of us to express Him. Eventually, the tension died down, and I was grateful for the patience of the desk attendant and other airline staff.
My brother and I were soon given a free night’s stay at a hotel. Our needs were met every step of the way. I later found out that there had been reports of gunfire at our connecting airport and riots in the vicinity of our final destination. In spite of what I’d thought originally, it turned out that it was better that the flight had been canceled.
I knew God would take care of me—and all the other passengers—no matter what.
Eight years have gone by since this experience, and I’ve reflected more on what it taught me. Originally, I had thought that God knew about the bad things happening along our path, so He redirected our course. But later I realized that God hadn’t dictated a flight cancellation and put its passengers in a hotel for the night. God is good and knows and expresses only good. So it was more about how my experience conformed to the spiritual facts as I recognized that God’s goodness had to be expressed in tangible ways.
I realized that all I had needed to do was expect good in order to see it in my experience. The Bible says, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:5, 6). This tells me we can trust that good will always unfold, although sometimes in ways we don’t expect, because good is the law of God.
Good was revealed to me in many ways and expressed by the people around me—in the patience of airline staff, the graciousness of our taxi driver, and the friendliness of the hotel clerk. I was so grateful that we were able to travel safely home the next day.
Even if my flight hadn’t been canceled, I know that I still would have been safe in God’s care, and always will be, because I live in the kingdom of heaven. I’m so grateful to know this for everyone!