Our team was exhausted.

We had been traveling by plane, train, and automobile for hours and just wanted to be home.

Arriving in Detroit that mid-Sunday afternoon, the eight of us settled in for our six-hour layover. While the lengthy stop wasn’t optimal, it gave us more time to talk about our mission trip to Italy and all the ways we’d seen God show up in our lives during our time there.

The closer we got to our departure, though, the more delay alerts we started to receive on our phones.

Storms in another area of the country had grounded our connecting flight.

Still, we hung on to the hope that our plane would arrive and take us the rest of the way home.

Until 11 o’clock that night.

That’s when the announcement was made that our flight was being rescheduled to 8:30 the next morning.

Reality set in and our team circled up to make the most important decision of the moment – should we spend additional time, money, and energy getting to a hotel for the night or should we just sleep on the airport floor?

We came to a unanimous decision relatively quick and Gate C18 became our room for the night.

We secured some Chicklet-sized airline pillows and paper-thin “blankets”. We sequestered ourselves on windowsills and threw ourselves on the open floor in a dedicated effort to get some sleep.

The morning found us with bags under our eyes, a collective focus to find the nearest source of caffeine, and a fresh hope that we’d be home in just a few hours.

And we were.

International travel is a terrific exercise in flexibility.

Surrendering personal preferences makes it much easier to go with the flow. So does remembering Jesus.

In Matthew 8, Jesus noted that “…foxes have dens, and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.” (vs. 20 CSB)

Jesus modeled what a selfless life of ministry and service looked like. He went where His Father directed Him and, in doing so, never really knew where He’d wind up bunking down for the night.

It can be easy to overlook inconveniences and sacrifices like this when I have a comfortable bed to sleep in every night.

Made me grateful for the night at Gate C18 and the reminder that God calls me to a life of surrender.

It won’t always be convenient, comfortable, or what I would choose, but it will always be for His glory, my growth, and the eternal good.

Until next time, Grace and Glory!