Security in Seat 37 A

I was called out today, leaving Dana Point on essentially no sleep at 1:30 a.m. wake up to report for standby at 4:30 in LA. Then immediately after my check-in I was assigned a turn to New York where I worked the first flight and did a deadhead on the one home; seated in 37A. I didn’t notice it until I was boarding and perhaps the excitement is what prompted me to strike up a conversation with the man next to me. I knew he would be instrumental in some sort of way.

Well, as it turned out, he was working security for a rapper named Big Sean who was seated in first class. The conversation firstly went down a path that made my skin crawl. He shared stories with me about things he’d seen in the industry with past assignments and then we talked about the greed, heartlessness and culturally unsound direction of the US and the youth in particular. Then, I snuck off to try to get into the crew rest compartment under the airplane but was warned against doing so by a guy who was jumpseating – saying that I could get into trouble.

I found a middle seat in the back to take a nap for a couple of hours and then rejoined the security guard an hour before landing as we started our descent. This is when I would find out the reason he was seated next to me and the angels wanted to be sure they had my attention by first flashing the word “Sparks” on the screen as a city we were crossing over (that I’ve never heard of) and then with a time stamp of 37 on the corner and then finally a screen reset placing the image 37A in big bold text in front of me. They come in 3’s I know. But this one was fast and furious – like a siren of the emergency broadcast system speaking to my soul, “Hey girl! Listen up!”

He told me his name was Paul (and that he was named after the Apostle Paul) and how is mother always reminded him that the scripture over his life was to “fight the good fight of faith and finish his race well.” It was an immediate and strange turning of topics from the conversation I’d left hours earlier with an image in my mind of this big guy drinking 40’s at big celebrity parties surrounded by naked women. He talked about where he was from (the islands near Fuji) and the way he was brought up. His mother and her 11 siblings are all independant businesswomen and he never had much of a relationship with his dad. The more he spoke, the more I could feel the soul bond connecting between us. He was a kindred spirit to me and one who had suffered through many trials and near death encounters on his journey to the here and now. With each story he unpacked he ended with, “My mother prayed me through that,” as if there were no doubt in his mind that he had an enemy after his life and a mother holding the weaponry to slay demons. And she did, claimed the big tough guy with a softening heart that became more beautiful and vibrant as he spoke.

When I got off the plane Paul and Big Sean were standing at the end of the jetbride as he opened his big arms and said, “Miss Jodi, I have to give you a hug before I leave.”

It’s not until now as I’m back home in a bed sitting in front of this computer screen do I see a big picture becoming clearer in hindsight 2020 of this 37 meeting. He truly is one of me; a warrior on a mission beyond what he even can understand as he says he’s learning more each day to pray, “God your will not my will be done.”

And tonight as I stare at these websites and blogs I’ve been crafting for years as if the contents were a life or death mission I have a hint of clarity in the story that my soul came here to tell. Maybe it never was about me finding my one true love after my heart was trampled repeatedly throughout my hearts – maybe it’s in the mystery that I still believe God is good. I still believe God is love even though I admit I may not have ever been truly on this earth to set an example of such and I still believe He’s on the throne, writing in the sand called me with new grace each day and a purpose to be here for his Glory.

I see the darkness in people and places. I can feel it when I walk in a room as the energy shifts and the demons are exposed and I keep trying to run away from everything and everyone to find a place of peace and joy where love is the mainstay of the hearts I entertain. But in talking to Paul tonight, I understand that’s not the calling upon someone who’s walked through the fire. Our lives don’t belong to us anymore and we’ve chosen the path less traveled or it chose us. We’re both on borrowed time. We both have been snatched out of the hands of death over and over again. We both are warriors walking by the Spirit of he who sent us.

I’m tired of being silent. Far too much is being shown to me, gifted to me and I won’t take it for granted.

Just last week I was in Florida collecting sand on the beach with my daughter to bring back to California so I could finish my prayer box and get back into the routine of lighting candles and writing letters to God as I send my hopes to heaven. We both have the same nightly prayer; my daughter and I. We want her brother healed and onto a new abundant and fulfilling chapter in his life. And just one day after that, my son woke up with a fire in him to drive to California. He didn’t even stop to take a nap – just drove straight through for 24 hours as we all prayed through the night that his car could make it here and he’d be kept safe. My mom texted me a song from the Judds called “Guardian Angels” as I put my make-up on ready to greet him with tears streaming down my face. And here I am tonight meeting people like Paul who I know too was sent from the angels to let me know that my prayers are powerful. I’m seen. I’m heard. I’m loved. I will be victorious as a warrior with a pen and a mother’s heart determined to see her baby boy rise to the top and walk in his purpose too.

I hope I don’t fly out tomorrow and get to return to Dana Point to see them. But more than anything I hope God’s perfect will is done exactly to plot as His word says that he is giving my son HOPE and a FUTURE.

It’s 11:17 (my kids bdays) and I’m going to sleep with hope in my heart tonight for the first time in a long time.

Dear God,

Thank you for all you are doing. You truly do paint beauty from our ashes and I just want to thank you that Josh is here and that something big is happening. Please guide our hearts – me and Glenn and his father and my daughter and Tamra too. Stir in us all your love and purpose and gift us your divine guidance and care. Show us the way as you light the path before our feet and let this be a story of your Glory in pulling my son out of a dark place and into greatness by the power that can only be granted by your hands.

Thank you Father.

In Jesus Name.

Amen.