Read it before you need it!

We fly often. Steve puts together trips of all kinds, tells me when to show up and how many layers I will need. If you follow him on social media, you will see his journal of our various adventures. You might also notice that when everyone else is in shirt sleeves, I am often wearing sweatshirts and my favorite, very old and worn, down jacket.

As an experienced traveler, I tend to recognize and appreciate exceptional personnel with airlines, lodging, restaurants, and basically everywhere. Though this should not be the exception, I still find myself surprised and delighted when I have the opportunity to engage with people who understand why customers matter and enjoy their jobs. I am sure that forty years in sales has everything to do with this mindset.

We spent last week in Cape Canaveral, with perfect weather except for the daily late afternoon downpour that is Florida.

On Monday the Falcon9 rocket was launched from Kennedy Space Center just across the beach from where we stayed. It was SpaceX’s 28th cargo launch, a resupply mission for the International Space Station. Later in the week we visited NASA, which is an impressive lookback on past missions: the astronauts, technologies and discoveries. There are also exhibits on SpaceX work; past, present and future.

One day we fished, and were reminded once again, why they call it “fishing” rather than “catching.” The sky and water were a glorious reminder of the unmatched talent of The Original Artist.

We flew home out of Orlando on Saturday via Southwest, our airline of choice for our many excursions to Florida. The flight attendants were especially engaging. The attendant who made the mandatory announcements understood her assignment well. She used humor to draw us into her announcements that we have all heard hundreds of times. On the topic of reviewing the safety and emergency instruction sheet she said, “Read it before you need it, people!”

As soon as I heard that, I wrote it down on my little Southwest napkin. See the picture below

What a profound instruction for the love letter left for us by God. “Read It BEFORE You Need It, People!

Oh the pain, anguish, horror, disappointment, confusion, desperation, loneliness, heartbreak, foolishness and lostness we could forego if we would only--read it before we need it.

When my boys were still at home, every morning I would make a serious breakfast before school. They would eat and I would read to them from the Bible. They have heard every Old Testament story many times over. Daniel and his run-in with King Darius that landed him in the lions’ den was a favorite. I would say to my boys, “Daniel was not trying to figure out who God was on his way to the lions’ den.” He knew his God well before he needed to be rescued. He was well versed in the Scriptures and prayed daily. In short, he read it before he needed it. He was prepared for persecution before it came. He was not pulling out the safety and emergency instructions for dealing with lions on the walk to the lions’ den. His relationship with his God was secure long before his emergency.

So, in the words of one of Southwest Airlines’ stellar employees, “READ IT BEFORE YOU NEED IT, PEOPLE!”