Day 12: Airborne Attitude Adjustment

Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. James 1:2–3

Since my job is basically an itinerant evangelist, I’m typically on a plane two or three times a week. And over the years I’ve become a less-than-enthusiastic frequent flyer. I get tired of long security lines, canceled flights, and lost luggage, plus the fact that most plane seats are approximately the width of a supermodel’s rear end!

Anyway, I was already a tad grumpy on a recent flight when I looked up and noticed an elderly woman loaded with bags boarding our motorized aluminum can. With jaded resignation, I sighed and thought, I bet she sits next to me, because even from twenty-five feet I could tell she was a talker.

Sure enough, after accidentally whacking me in the head with her purse, she wedged into the seat beside me and began chatting. I gave her a brief smile, then pointedly turned my attention back to the book I was reading so as to dissuade her from trying to make any more conversation. Instead, she perkily persisted in asking a litany of get-to-know-you questions. This caused me to muse to myself, “If I wasn’t a Bible teacher, I would so lie right now and tell this woman I was a tax auditor who was tasked by the government to audit a randomly selected person on this very plane.” That would surely create some distance.

Eventually my monosyllabic responses discouraged her into polite silence. I felt a twinge of guilt for shutting grandma down but before my guilt led to repentance, I fell asleep on my tray table. A little while later, I realized my iPod must’ve slid off the table, because I jerked awake while she was trying to carefully place it back next to my snoring face. And when I read the concern on her countenance, the seed of my earlier guilt blossomed into a mighty oak tree.

I sheepishly wiped the drool off my cheek and confessed, “I’m sorry I wasn’t friendly earlier. I’ve just had a really hard week and am pretty tired. My name is Lisa, what’s yours?” She smiled broadly and replied, “My name is Agnes and I’m eighty-three years old!” When I asked where she was going, she twisted to face me, arched both eyebrows with mischievous joy, and announced that she was headed to Mumbai, India!

I was taken aback that an eighty-three-year old woman was traveling halfway across the world by herself and exclaimed, “Wow! Why are you going to India, Miss Agnes?” She all but squealed in response, “I’m going to India to tell people about JESUS!” At which point I thought, I’m going to be hit by a LIGHTNING BOLT for being such a grouch to such a dear saint!

Agnes spent the next twenty minutes telling me her story. How she and her husband, Jim, were high school sweethearts who got married right after graduation and had their first baby when she was nineteen. How she put her hope in Jesus Christ soon after becoming a mom. Of course, she began praying that Jim would put his hope in the unconditional love of Jesus too and not only did he, but within a few years he became a pastor!

She said their life was blessed beyond her wildest dreams until they were in their mid-forties and Jim died in an accident. Shortly thereafter one of her grown sons died as well. Agnes said she thought her life was over. That she couldn’t go on without her husband and son. But she said before she could “really get to wallowing,” God spoke to her spirit and said, “Agnes, I’m the love of your life and Jim would want you to get on with your life!”

So she picked herself up and dusted herself off and decided to invest her heart into missions. With a twinkle in her eyes she enthused, “Lisa, I’ve been on fifty-one trips outside the US since then and I’ve never been more content. I’ve prayed with children in Africa and slept in a hut with a pastor’s family in Mongolia. I’ve had the privilege of traveling all over the world to tell people about Jesus!”

After escorting my new friend to the international concourse, I had to run to catch my flight home to Nashville. But I wasn’t grumpy anymore. Instead I grinned the whole way thinking to myself, I want to be more like Agnes when I grow up! I want to live a pedal-to-the-metal, no-holds-barred, running-full-tilt-toward-Jesus kind of life! May it be so of all of us—even if it takes some accidental narcolepsy and a purse-whack.

• On a scale of 1 to 10—with 1 being “grumpy, pre-Agnes me” and 10 being “twinkly-eyed, world-changing Agnes”—where would you place yourself on a “counting it all joy” scale this season?
• How has God interrupted your life in an unexpected way, and reignited your passion for Him?
• Who is a spiritual Agnes in your life? What steps can you take to find someone like that to help you stay in a content-with-Jesus kind of place?