DELAYS!!!

“GOD’S protections ALWAYS include DELAYS!!!” Unknown

Whew!! Just got home from spending Christmas in Seattle with my family and had a wonderful time.  But our travel plans didn’t quite go as expected. We were scheduled to leave the Friday before Christmas but Thursday night when downloading my boarding pass, I discovered our flight had been canceled.  Like hundreds of others, our flight was canceled because of inclimate weather.  Fifteen hours before we were scheduled to depart, we found ourselves scrambling to find another flight.  After being on hold for 8 hours trying to reach a customer service agent, my call was disconnected at 5:37 am.  I immediately called right back and began the wait all over again. It quickly became obvious that our travel plans would have DELAYS.   But unbeknownst to me, my cousin in Seattle had called and was on hold too!!  After a 6 hour wait, her call was finally answered and she connected a 3-way call with the agent and my sister, who was able to book a flight leaving 2 days later on Christmas day. We had look forward to this trip for months and were ecstatic. Once we’d booked another flight, I began reflecting on the frustrations caused by the DELAY and was reminded that DELAYS are a part of life. DELAYS happen to everyone at some point in our lives but how we respond to them is what matters. How do you handle DELAYS? Do they frustrate you?  Or do you accept them and go with the flow?  I’m learning to go with the flow. So, for this week’s blog, let’s talk SHIP about the importance of accepting DELAYS!!!  

The very definition of the word DELAY almost infers that there is going to be a problem.  Webster defines DELAY as: to make (someone or something) late or slow; a period of time in which something is late or postponed. The word DELAY has a negative connotation-late, slow, postponed. DELAYS can be inconvenient, and frustrating, but they aren’t always bad although they seem to start that way.  I’ll admit, when our flight was canceled, automatically we were frustrated because we thought our Christmas was ruined, but it wasn’t.  It was simply DELAYED, which turned out to be not so bad, it just required a shift in perspective. See last Christmas, we traveled to Seattle in the midst of another horrible winter storm and had no idea of the travel woes that others experienced until we arrived and watched CNN.  Even when returning home, our flight was DELAYED a few hours while gates around us canceled their outgoing flights. So, we didn’t anticipate that things would be different this year. However, the smooth trip that we experienced last year, made it easier for us to appreciate this year’s travel DELAYS. Instead of being disappointed that we weren’t traveling, we viewed it as having 2 extra days to do stuff or not do stuff  I chose the “not do stuff” option and mentally started my vacation while my sister and mother chose to go grocery shopping in preparation for our New Year’s Day meal, which alleviated doing that task when we returned. We simply did what we needed to do to make the best of our DELAY.   Sure, we wanted our trip to go as planned when we purchased our tickets in March but had to ACCEPT that GOD through the weather had other plans to ensure our safety.

Oftentimes, DELAYS can make us feel like the universe has conspired to thwart our plans, but that’s far from the truth.  We have a tendency to take DELAYS personally, but we shouldn’t.  Because once we ACCEPT that GOD’S protection includes DELAYS, we become grateful for them.   Although, we may have to look hard for them, we can ALWAYS find things to be grateful for when we experience DELAYS.  Like the man who was late to work on 9-11 because his shoes were hurting, and he stopped by a shoe shop for a remedy. They bombed the towers at the exact time he was supposed to be at his desk. His DELAY saved his life. The list of people who have had life-saving experiences because of a fluke DELAY is long and growing. Through this experience, I am very grateful that I was home in pajamas when I found out the flight was canceled instead of being in the midst of that chaos at the airport. That DELAY saved us tons of time, both money-going and coming, and frustration. 

DELAYS are inevitable and beyond our control. We can either choose to accept them or remain frustrated by them, it’s our CHOICE!!! So, in 2023, as you journey and navigate your way through this New YEAR, be prepared to EXPECT DELAYS.  But don’t view them as roadblocks or obstacles, instead embrace and accept them knowing that GOD’S protections WILL ALWAYS include both detours and DELAYS!!!

At whatstheship.com, we hope that you have a love filled, prosperous and Happy New Year!!!

SHIP TALK: How do you handle DELAYS?

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