Urgency Renewed…at 37,000 Feet

I’m somewhere over the north Atlantic en route from Calgary to Frankfurt in the middle of the night. The Air Canada A330 lights are dimmed. We’re supposed to be sleeping now. The in-flight entertainment system has crashed. I’ll have to find out later who wins the Frost-Nixon debate.

I should be sleeping. But instead, my mind is swirling.

Strangely, I’m not looking ahead to the three days of Willow Creek Association meetings coming up this week. Instead, I’m looking back over the past five hours of travel. And I’m seeing the faces of the people I’ve encountered today.

The waitress in the coffee shop in the Kelowna airport. She seemed distracted; something worrying her.

The airport security people; sharing some secret joke as I was processed through.

The friendly, talkative guy sitting next to me in the Calgary Airport restaurant.

And these couple of hundred people sitting here in the darkness, making our way together to Germany. Each with a story. Each with a destiny.

I wonder if God is bringing all these faces back to mind to help prepare my heart for these meetings. You see, at this gathering of the leaders of Willow Creek Associations from around the world, we will be praying over and discussing how to more effectively equip churches to reach even more people for Christ.

And I’m realizing that those who need to know the love of Christ are not anonymous people wandering around out there.

It’s the waitress in the coffee shop. It’s the people working in the airport security area. It’s the guy in the restaurant. It’s these fellow passengers.

And perhaps what God is trying to get through to me is simply that His love for these, and all people, is deeper, wider, purer and stronger than I can possibly fathom.

These meetings just took on a heightened sense of urgency.

How do you re-ignite passion when you find yourself heading into yet another ministry-related meeting?