I woke up with a crazy mixture of excitement, fatigue, anxiousness, and a sense of urgency. I’d been invited to a leadership conference in sunny Fort Worth, Texas, and couldn’t wait to enjoy 70-degree weather. That sure sounded nice compared to -1 degree with the nasty Montana winter storm. After my flight today, I planned to meet a new friend for dinner. It would be a fun getaway.

Although I couldn’t wait to get there, things were moving at warp speed at the Legislature. If the child welfare reform bills we’d been working on didn’t get through in the next week, they would be DEAD! There were still over twenty bills that needed to go through the process. The trip couldn’t have come at a worse time.

I got ready for the day and then packed with haste. I needed to be on a zoom call for a hearing at 9:00 am. The muscles in my neck and back were tight with tension. Based on how the bills were heard, it was possible I’d need to leave for the airport before I had a chance to testify. Perhaps I could keep the zoom link going on my drive to the airport! That still left two testimonies I needed to write since they had just been scheduled for hearings on Friday, which I definitely couldn’t attend.

My fingers flew across the keyboard, trying to maximize the few hours before I needed to leave. A message popped up in my email: “Your flight is on schedule.” I tried to work faster. Then eight minutes later, “Your flight has been canceled”. Both disappointment and relief swept through me. I realized that even though I was anxious to get there, I needed this one more day to address the urgent issues at hand.

As the day unfolded, I testified on the bills, wrote a proposed amendment for a bill, and wrote the additional testimonies for the Friday hearings. Two of my children also stopped and we enjoyed some time catching up. I even got in a much-needed hour of downtime to play Canasta with my husband.

The next morning, a family matter arose that absolutely needed to be attended to. In fact, if it didn’t get addressed, I wouldn’t be getting on the plane. Within a few hours, things were back on track and Ron dropped me off at the airport. Going through security I thought, “Thank God my flight got canceled so I was home where I needed to be these past twenty-four hours.”

A grounded airplane due to a snowstorm felt like a gift. In fact, it almost seemed like God had done that just for me! If so, I’m sorry to my fellow travelers, but I am so grateful. God knew I needed an extra day to be present for matters I couldn’t have planned nor anticipated, allowing my day to serve His purposes and my sanity!

James 4:13-15 “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” (NIV) I’m good with that!