EDITOR'S NOTE: Since becoming the clergy leader at Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn., in November 2017, I've written a monthly column for our church newsletter. This column originally published in the March 2020 FLC Newsletter.
The young woman boarded the plane, and instantly you could tell that she was not feeling well. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her tear ducts were full, on the verge of that moment when big, fat tears are about to roll out.
The woman’s entire head, from the neckline of her shirt to the tippy-top of the crown, was bright pink.
And she was shaking. Head to toe shaking. … As she reached a tentative hand out to the flight attendant who was standing at the door, the paper airline ticket in her hand was vibrating she was shaking so much. … She was reaching out to steady herself, as much as she was to get the attendant’s attention.
“Do you know if there is going to be much turbulence?” the young woman asked the attendant in a quiet and unsteady voice.
“Excuse me?” the attendant asked. … Not in a rude way. Just in the way of a busy flight attendant not expecting a person to stop and chat her up.
“Ummmm, do you know if there will be much turbulence today?” the woman asked again, this time with a little more forced courage.
“Oh, I see,” the flight attendant said, as recognition set in. She saw almost immediately that this young woman, who was flying alone, was petrified. “Well, I think we’re set for a pretty smooth flight. I didn’t see anything about turbulence.”
“Ok, because I was already on a flight this morning, and there was a lot of turbulence,” the young woman said, evidently not completely convinced.
“I understand. Looks like it might have been a rough one. … I tell you what, would you like to ask the captain?” the flight attendant asked, motioning to the cockpit. “Captain, this young woman is wondering if there will be much turbulence today on the flight today.”
The pilot turned back in his chair, and first looked at the flight attendant, who motioned with a head nod toward the anxious young woman. In an instant, the pilot understood what the flight attendant was doing.
He folded himself out of his cockpit, and met the woman in the short entry way of the plane.
“No, no suspected turbulence,” he said, “and I promise, if I see any on the horizon, I’ll fly around it. You have my word.”
“Ok, thank you,” the young woman said, with a sigh and shudder through her entire body. Immediately the anxiety seemed to flow out of her body. She thanked both the attendant and the pilot again, and then she started slowly down the aisle back to her seat.
The flight attendant thanked the pilot again, before he crawled back into the cockpit, and the attendant went about the rest of her many duties.
I witnessed this exchange on my most recent flight for work at Modulist. I had a seat near the front of the plane, and was lucky enough to witness the entire interaction, including a few minutes later when the flight attendant from the back of the plane came forward, and the first attendant relayed the young woman’s anxiety over the flight to her. She also asked the other attendant to check in on the woman.
While I’m certain it is important for the attendants on the flight to know who is anxious and may later become a safety risk should they panic when the plane is in the air, there was something more spiritual happening at that moment. The first attendant wasn’t only doing her job when she chatted about the anxious woman; she genuinely was trying to help the woman feel better, and not in a surface level way.
No, you could tell in her tender ways and the extra actions she took that she wasn’t only concerned about the woman in a professional way, she actually cared about the woman. She wanted her to feel better. She wanted her not to be afraid. … And I don’t know if the attendant is a faithful person or not, but at that moment she was being Christ’s hands and feet.
At times, as Christians, I worry that we place a bar so high for ourselves that our actions become self-defeating. … Oh, the world’s problems are so big, my single action doesn’t matter. … There are so many hurting people, my kindness doesn’t matter. … If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ve all had those feelings.
But what if it was hope, and not fear, that drove us? Hope that was the foundation of our faith and not defeatism?
My wife, Shelley, has a wall hanging that simply states: “But it mattered to one.”
In my example from my recent flight, likely no one outside of the young woman, the pilot and myself will ever know of the flight attendant’s kind actions. But yet she performed them anyway, and she made the whole world different for one scared young woman.
What if we all approached our days as such? What if we didn’t worry about the soul-crushing problems taking place in the world at this moment, but instead focused on how our actions could help the one? … The one next to you right now, as you read this? ... The one you walk by in the grocery store? … The one sitting next to you at work?
We are called to allow Christ’s light to shine through us. It doesn’t always take monumental efforts or heroic gestures. Sometimes it’s as simple as being kind to a young woman who is very frightened. And making that choice is life-giving and thus doing Christ’s work right here, right now.
This month I challenge you to think about the power of one. … The power of being Christ’s hands and feet for that one person who really needs you right. Maybe that will help us focus on what it truly means to be Christian. … Amen!
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