The Lord says you can be angry but sin not. And I will tell you about how I was made angry today. Though I am embarrassed because I don’t believe I handled it well.
I thought about naming this blog a million different things, including, “Putting Possessions Above People”, “Irresponsible Airlines”, “Learning to be Flexible”, and “Obama May Have Ruined My Travel Plans.” I decided on the above title however since, ultimately, it doesn’t matter what other people do, it matters how we respond. That is what we will be judged on.
Because I didn’t leave North Carolina until the day before yesterday, I have a grand total of 1.5 days to spend with my grandparents in Pennsylvania, 2.5 days with the rest of the family in Maryland, and then 3 days in Ohio with my mother to pack.
I have to fly to most of the above locations and that is where my trouble begins. I try to be the nice person, letting people ahead in lines (sometimes…haha), putting both my carry on and personal item under my seat for crowded flights, smiling at the workers, etc.
As I sat in Philadelphia waiting for my connecting flight, I was informed that I was the last one to check in for my flight back in Detroit, which means I was the first to get bumped off because the flight was “too heavy”. (Which stinks, because we had a passenger on board who was shifted to that flight from another he missed…but he got to go on despite his “later check in”….meh…life’s not fair).
I was also angry that they would choose to kick people off of a “heavy” flight rather than shift baggage to other airplanes to be returned to their owners at a future time. Perhaps they didn’t want to loose their immense checked bag fee. But either way, I didn’t like that possessions above people mentality.
When they boarded the plane and I saw it leave with my seat empty, I lost it. Tears of anger flowed and my body shook visibly. (So much that I spilled my coffee….which is saying a lot. Coffee is precious stuff!) They said no more flights were going to my airport until the next day and they wanted to discuss alternative airports and compensation vouchers. That is when I regret to say, I flipped. “I don’t want your vouchers!” I screamed through tears. “I want the time you have taken from my grandfather! I have only a day and a half with him and you have taken half!” That section of the airport went silent and the manager had to walk away as I tried to calm down and call my grandmother.
We ended up working things out. She drove two hours south and got me from an alternate airport that afternoon. God did work out our time together as well. But I have to admit, though I handled it poorly and yelled (which I didn’t know I could even do…scary!) I am not sorry about getting mad. I paid the same that others did, I arrived to the gate early, I shouldn’t be removed from my flight because of the airline’s mistake. And worse yet, my flight wasn’t the only one they were doing this to. Other flights that evening were bumping guests off as well. Anger was a natural response in the moment…though I am following it up now with gratitude to help my attitude. I am grateful to be here with family and have had it work out as well as it did. (Though that didn’t help me in the moment of the anger).
I do want to work on that though. How do we find ourselves angry, but not sin? Seriously, there is so much injustice in the world. If I see government oppression of a Christian Orphanage in Malaysia, if I see a little girl enslaved in Thailand, if I see children drinking out of a mud hole in Haiti, if I see AIDS victims dying without assistance in Africa, I know I will be angry. Angry at the system, angry at the circumstance, and perhaps (hopefully not but perhaps) angry at God. HOW DO WE ANGER BUT SIN NOT? This is not a rhetorical question and I would love to see your advice in the comments if you have any input. Thank you all.
PS. I almost called it the Obama title because I later found out that the president flew into the airport which stopped all air traffic and caused most of the delays. Interesting huh? (PPS. Please don’t take this offensively…I don’t really blame the president of the US for my travel troubles. Would have liked a limo ride to grandma’s house though. 🙂
