Delayed Freedom

Delayed Freedom

How many of you have had a terrible airport or flight experience?  Let me tell you, the last experience we encountered ended up being quite the adventure.  It gave my husband and I an experience we never anticipated or saw coming and hope to never experience again.  Speed walking across the massive Boston airport in multiple different directions, waiting in massive lines, many phone/text conversations, a lost parking garage ticket, even more delays, disgruntled customer services workers and lost luggage were just some of the adventures and fiascos we encountered at the airports.

My husband and I had to go away for a weekend business trip.  The weekend was drawing to a close and we were discussing what to do with the couple of free hours we had remaining. There was a beach nearby so we decided that would be the perfect spot to relax before heading to the airport.  As I was checking on my phone for directions to the beach, I received the notification from our airline about our flight.  That’s when it all started; the dreaded “flight delay” notice was on our flight status.  Great, that was not exactly what we wanted to see!  As time went on to our utter dismay our flight was being delayed even more.  Now not only was it delayed, but we were also going to miss our connecting flight to Cleveland.  

I called the airline to see what would happen to our connecting flight, and indeed we would miss the flight. On top of that, there were no other flights that their airline could put us on till morning.  They advised us it would be best to just come to the airport.  That erased any thought of driving to the nearby beach, instead we were quickly heading to the airport to figure out how to get home.  

To make a long story short, we spent the rest of the day bouncing from terminal to terminal trying to find a flight home.  Being a Sunday afternoon, there were not many options available and most of the flights were sold out.  After many dead end options, with the help of a friend back home, we finally ended up on a flight that would take us from Boston to Chicago and then onto Columbus.  Hallelujah, what relief!

Finally, we were through check-in and airport security, we were going home!  Then it all started over again when our flight status changed to DELAYED again!   You can only imagine our utter disbelief and dismay! We could not believe our eyes when we saw the monitor that delivered the dreaded news! Guess what the worst part was…. yep, we were going to miss our connecting flight once again!  This was a laugh or cry moment, so we laughed.  

After many, many hours in airports, and an unplanned overnight stay in Chicago, we did finally end up making it home.  Everything worked out okay, but it was not without a lot of delays and incidents that left us feeling stuck, stressed, desperate, and helpless.    

As I sit and reflect on the massive amount of fiascos all tied together.  I can’t help but think of one phrase “Delayed Freedom”.  

Delayed means:

1. To put off to a later time; defer; postpone:

2. To impede the process or progress of; retard; hinder:

This was an airport experience turned horribly wrong; it definitely had delayed our freedom.  The destination was in our mind of where we needed to be.  No matter what we did and no matter how hard we tried, we could not get there! Our arrival had been postponed and hindered.  We had been dependent on the airports, and they failed us.  

Our efforts left us feeling exhausted and truly beat up.  Even after all our efforts that day, it was a thwarted attempt. At the end of that day we did not land where we needed to be. Our circumstances that we were truly stuck in began breeding stress, chaos, tension, anger, tears, and even bickering between my husband and I.  

How many of us in our spiritual walk feel that we are truly stuck in a situation and because of that your freedom is being delayed?  How many of you encounter these same feelings:  stress, chaos, anxiety,  tension, anger?   Why do we feel delayed and start to be consumed by these feelings? Because there is something in our life that is impeding the process or progress of receiving this freedom Christ has for us.  This is truly a helpless place to be in.

One thing I learned from this whole situation is that in the end, we have absolutely no control.   For example, we landed in Chicago with plenty of time to catch our connecting flight to Columbus, we were so relieved! Instead of immediately pulling up to our gate and getting to our connecting flight, we remained on the airplane taxing the Chicago runway for 30 minutes.  This resulted in us missing our connecting flight! It was EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING! We were so close we could see it, but we still managed to miss our flight, even though our luggage didn’t….somehow it made the flight to Columbus when we didn’t.

The only thing that we truly have control of is how we act, how we respond, and how we think.  It didn’t matter how upset or how worked up we got.  It didn’t matter what words we spoke to the airlines, we were inevitably stuck in Chicago with no luggage.  There was nothing we could do about it! This situation allowed me to realize how helpless, out of control and hopeless you can feel when you are in a delay.  

As I relate this chain of events to a lot of our personal lives it provides me with an opportunity to see how our freedom can be delayed.  So many people go through life stressed, angry, carrying around chaos, and tension. In the end it leaves them feeling helpless and bound in chains.  Why? Because they are going through life exerting all of their effort to get to a place they think they need, want, or deserve to be at the timing they believe is best for them. Most likely they are relying on the wrong thing to get them there. In the end, this only leaves them disappointed, delayed, exhausted, and not at the destination they intended. 

Inevitably, they have delayed their freedom because they have placed all of the control in their own hands instead of the Holy Spirit’s hands.  When we begin depending on the wrong things for our freedom, they will fail us and our freedom will be delayed!  An amazing promise we can hold onto is when we depend on God and when we give control to God, He will not fail us, He will free us! 

Galatians 5:16-18 TPT says:

“As you yield freely and fully to the dynamic life and power of the Holy Spirit, you will abandon the cravings of your self - life.  For your self - life craves the things that offend the Holy Spirit and hinder him from living free within you! And the Holy Spirit’s intense cravings hinder your old self - life from dominating you! So then, the two incompatible and conflicting forces within you are your self - life of the flesh and the new creation life of the Spirit.  But when you are brought into the full freedom of the Spirit of grace, you will no longer be living under the domination of the law, but soaring above it!”

Delayed freedom will only leave you feeling hopeless, helpless and stranded, and will leave your life void of any joy and peace. Ladies, God has so much freedom to give us.  Let’s all allow God to help us break free of these chains that keep us from soaring. Yielding to the Holy Spirit and grasping ahold of the full freedom only He can offer.