There is an apocryphal story about the early days at FedEx that circulated in the days I worked there.  It seems that Fred Smith, founder of the company,  had flown to Chicago to try to get a bank loan; times were lean and he was having a hard time making payroll.  Back at O’Hare with nothing to show for his effort after the banks said no, the story continues. Fred Smith stood in front of the departures screen wondering how he would go back home empty handed.  He noticed there was a flight leaving soon to Las Vegas and he took it.  By the time he got home to Memphis, he had won enough in Vegas to pay his employees.

I am heading home after a pretty remarkable pair of days of conversation and planning.  This morning though, they found a hydraulics leak in the plane for my flight from Reno to Las Vegas where I had a connection on a direct flight to Fort Lauderdale that would get me home early in the evening (a good thing, when the next day is Sunday and church).  I ended up on the next flight assured that we would make it in time to make my connection.  Literally, what followed was a scene from the movies with me running from gate 32 to gate 9 only to see my flight pulling away from the jetway.

The new flight I’m on is late and I’ll be home late tonight, without my checked bag.  Maybe I should play the slot machines while I wait, maybe I will be fortunate like Fred Smith and come home with sorely needed funds for our ministries.  I rather doubt it though. I can’t bring myself to go into the endlessly noisy ‘game salons’  I see all up and down the terminal.  But I am bored so maybe, I’ll do this:

Next stop, Kansas City…