Disco planes

Usually, amenities on a flight like 1st class or something similarly special costs extra. But, not for us - oh no - we get stuff for free. Like disco lights for instance. You see, I have spent weeks talking to the team about my preference for this particular type of aircraft. No offense to anyone else, it just seems they give me more room for my legs. Anyway, so here we were, all checked in and ready to go, all bags on board (they all made it) and ready for a 9 hour flight across the Atlantic.

The take off goes perfect, we begin our climb-out, and then it happens. The guy gets on the mike to tell us about how long the flight is and what they'll be serving for dinner and why not to congregate at the front of the aircraft and suddenly an alarm somewhere on the aircraft goes off. "Bzzzzz-bzzzzz" and to make it even more entertaining (Sarah B. sitting beside me starts levitating off the seat repeating the phrase "I really don't like to fly. David, I really don't like flying!" Meanwhile, to this moment, we still have no idea what he said because while the guy on the mike was speaking, the speakers in our section (rows 346 & back) get all staticky (is this a word?) and then the lights start flashing. The overhead lights, the floor lights, call button light, the reading lights - all of them - start flashing on and off, at random. All of them.

Let me make sure you understand this. The lights are flashing throughout the next 7 hours. Everyone else on the flight is sleeping and for some reason I can't get the Bee-Gee's song "Shadow Dancing" out of my head. "Do it light , taking me through the night, shadow dancing ..." Meanwhile, J.J., the way-too-cute 2 year old next to me is talking up a storm and several other kids are running the aisles like they've been chewing on coffee beans.

So anyway, an hour into the light show the lady comes on the speaker to tell our section (remember, the speaker does not work, so she sounds like the teacher on the Charlie Brown cartoon) that they are having electrical problems. Electrical problems. We're approaching 20,000 feet and we're having electrical problems. So, Sarah B., who is going to kill me for writing this, asks me if the plane is okay, so I do an imitation of of someone who does not have an intelligent answer and say "Sure." She asks "Are you sure?" Well, I decided that "no" would not be an inspirational answer and decide to become the only aerodynamic electrical engineer on board and say "Yes, we'll be fine. If there was a problem, the pilot would have turned around already." "Oh, okay" she said. So then someone says, "Why don't they just turn off a breaker?" Good one. We're on an airplane and you want to start throwing breakers. If their breaker board (do planes even have breakers?) is anything like mine at home then it is not labeled correctly and we'd start loosing important things like the engines or even the coffee pot.

"... Give me more, drag me across the floor ... Shadow dancing , all this and nothing more...", "I don't LIKE flying! David, I really don't like to fly ..." I look up, as much as I can, to see if there is a sign that this will end anytime soon and I see the TV screen and it says we only have 8 hours left to our destination. 8 hours ...

8 hours later ....

Sarah slept, and so did J.J. and his mom, who was truly exhausted. The plane was fine, I have an amazing group of people to spend a week with, my wife and child love me, I serve an awesome God, and I just missed a 7 hour long opportunity to ponder on all of this.

Bottom line? If something is keeping you awake, go fix it. If someone is keeping you awake, go talk to them. Don't assume that it is an odd act of fate. Assume it's a loving God desiring a conversation. Once we arrived in Frankfurt, Germany, I fell asleep lying on the floor in the terminal. Once on the plane to St. Petersburg, I fell asleep before we took off.

Talk to God and give Him the opportunity to talk back. Enjoy the quirkiness of life and chase after opportunities. We're here. We're safe. And tomorrow, we'll be taking the love of God into orphanages. Isn't God great!