What began as a frustrating flight delay and diversion transformed into a profound opportunity for unexpected connection and spiritual insight.



I love to read on flights. Some people love to sleep, but I would rather read. It is the most peaceful time I will get in the air. Because of my lack of patience, though, I hate delayed flights, which is exactly what I faced a few weeks ago as I tried to get back home.

The flight started off like most flights, with the promising possibility of getting home earlier than I thought. That was until the pilot came on 20 minutes later to say, “We’ve been placed on a ground stop.” I knew at that moment the rest of the flight was going to get interesting.

So, just as I do on almost every flight, I took out my book and began to read. The book was "Spark," by Al Gordon, who has written an incredible work on igniting our God-given creativity. At first glance, many will see it as a book just for artists and creatives. It is much more than that. It is truly a book for everyone, as Gordon lays out, that God has placed us here to share his light.

When I think through my everyday life, I must be honest: it is rare that I see myself spreading light. In fact, because of the mundane things in life, most days I find myself simply doing life’s chores. Like a lot of you, I get up, make sure my family has what they need, try to live out my calling and then do it all over again the next day. Spreading light is not usually what I see. Yet when you read through the Bible, God sees us and calls us to spread light even in the most routine ways of life. When Jesus calls out his disciples to follow him and spread light, they are in the midst of the mundane things of life, yet Jesus sees that they have light.

After reading Gordon’s book and Jesus’ teaching on spreading light, I believe it is in the mundane things of life that we spread the greatest light. Often, it is in the darkest moments of life and culture. “You can’t spread light in the daylight.”

In spreading light, it seems fitting to do so in darkness. As soon as the captain brought the plane's lights on, I knew we were in trouble, because we had not landed yet. The pilot’s voice was calm and, at the same time, straight to the point: “Well, I have some bad news, we can’t seem to land in Atlanta due to them being backed up. So, we’re going to be diverted to Nashville so that we can refuel.” So, my flight, which was supposed to be an hour and a half, was being prolonged. It was at that moment of dread that the man sitting next to me looked at what I was reading and said, “That looks like a good book.”

God was giving me a gigantic opening to spread his light. My new friend started sharing how he enjoyed his work as an investor, but that as an atheist, gay man from the South, he had some questions regarding life. It was at that moment that I knew why God had delayed and diverted the flight. It was so I could share his light, and he was using the creative cover of Gordon’s book to strike up a conversation and to share his light with the world.

“To create something new requires being prepared to disrupt things,” Gordon writes. Often, in spreading light, God has to disrupt things to get our attention, to remind us that He has called us to spread His light. In my case, it was a delayed and diverted flight. Since my encounter with my new friend, with whom I got to share the light of the gospel, I have learned to look for ways in my mundane life to spread His gospel and to be more open to disruptions.

The Bible says it plainly from the very beginning. In Genesis 1:3, God disrupts the darkness with four words: “Let there be light.” Nothing was the same afterward. As my new friend and I got off the five-hour flight, he looked at me and said, “I’m thankful for the delayed flight, you never know what can happen.”

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