Welcome to Part 3 about ADVERSITY. We are never really happy when it happens. Nevertheless, we know as God’s children, when we are squeezed, the Fruit of the Spirit should pop out of us… LOL! In some instances it is really sweet. You know that God is giving you what you need to SHINE for Him!
Dr. Charles Stanley of In Touch Ministries, always said God is not necessarily concerned about our ease, comfort, and pleasure… OUCH! That really messes with self or selfishness. Once we realize life is not about us, it SETS US FREE! Adversities will come. Certainly, God will take care of us.
Sometimes we do not know why God allows adversities. As a result, we do know He is up to SOMETHING! During my adversities at the beginning of the year with the flu and my luggage getting lost, I asked God what did He want me to know?
In the process of trying to find my lost luggage, I encountered several agents with United Airlines. When we encounter people, we never know what others are going through or dealing with. Although they are working and must maintain their professionalism, some people may be having hardships on their job.
There was one agent I encountered, I found myself repeating the same story. It was the fifth or sixth time with another agent. God’s spirit had me to be patient and kind in sharing my story once again. My soul was frustrated though. I found it difficult to understand how my luggage got lost. I had two pieces of ID attached to my luggage of name, address, and phone number. How can your luggage get lost with that information? It happens!
So, in sharing this information with the agent, I had additional information. The partner airline, Lufthansa, contacted me by a no-reply email that they had located my luggage! As I shared this information with the agent, I could sense she really wanted to help. She put me on hold as she started searching their system to see what she could find.
She had me on hold for periods of time. Consistently, she would come back to let me know she was still searching. This went on for about 10-15 minutes or so. Finally, she was able to give me the case number Lufthansa had left in the email message they left me! I was so happy! I told her, she got five stars for the help she gave me.
I told her to send me a survey. She gave a breath of relief as if this was something she needed to hear. She said yes, I can send it to my supervisor. All the more I wanted to make this happen for her. So I asked her how we can make sure her supervisor will see this. She told me she could give me her work email address. Then, she could forward it to her supervisor.
I wrote the email. The subject line was, “Excellent Customer Service!” I am sure that should have gotten her attention and her supervisor’s attention. God reminded me sometimes people just need encouragement! When I commended her and offered to do a survey, that was encouragement! I could tell she needed it because of the breath of relief I heard coming from her.
My adversity gave encouragement to someone else! Imagine that… God’s ways and thoughts are not like ours ( Isiah 55:8-9). Again, God is not necessarily concerned about our ease, comfort and pleasure. He is MORE concerned about us reflecting Jesus to others in our lives. That is what God is up to… Amen. Love & Blessings!