"Oh Canada!"

This past weekend I traveled to Canada to speak at a youth conference, men's breakfast, preach a sermon and conduct a ParenTeen seminar. Yep, it was busy!

I had a great time meeting new people and seeing a part of North America that I had not seen before. I also had some new experiences in travel—I travel a lot.

Here we go...my first plane was struck by lightning and eventually removed from the flight line, we landed in Minneapolis, MN with a cross wind of over 45 miles an hour (fun to say the least) and my flight back to DFW was delayed almost five hours putting me back in Texas around 1 a.m. Oh, and the girl behind me puked in one of those "puke bags."

Travel issues can bring up all kinds of anxiety, fear and anger in people. My family, I am blessed, is rather casual (sometimes too casual when pushing the time limit on check in). We have a tendency to see delays and such as adventures and excuses to spend money at airport restaurants; others—not so much. People will gripe, yell, moan, use bad language (unfortunately I have witnessed this more than once—yeah adult role models!), and generally bring the joy level down when something does not go as planned. Last weekend was no exception—here comes the experiment.

They had just announced another delay and a few in the crowd began their downer "routine." However, the guy next to me was really enjoying the football game being played on the TV screens. I decided to talk to him about the game and comment on an instant replay. Yep, before long, both of our moods where lighter and patient with the delay. Soon after, a few other people began to laugh with us about the delay and how early it would be when we actually made it back to DFW. Social Experiment #2 was a success! A little positive infusion in to a negative situation does make a difference (again, that whole salt and light discussion of Jesus is coming to mind).

Disclaimer: Before you think I am a total saint of travel goodness, I too have had those "I can not believe this" moments (without the bad language) at airports in which I did not talk to the people around me, sat and pouted.