Cross & Quill

It’s hard to believe, but my life has not been the same since my last trip to the airport. It all started rather simply. I met a man. Not in the lets go on a date sort of way, but instead, more like the turn my life upside-down sort of way.
I had gone to the airport to pick up my brother, who was returning from a trip to South Carolina. I was sitting on a bench watching the planes come in through the floor to ceiling window typical to airports. At the other end of the bench was a man who was continuously squirming in his seat. It was clear that he needed to use the restroom, but for some reason he just kept sitting there. After a few minutes of this, I couldn’t handle it anymore. I looked over at him and noticed him grimacing.
“Are you alright, Sir?” I asked him, not wanting to be too forward.
“Fine,” he said, and went back to staring out the window and grimacing.
“Are you sure you’re alright? I can watch your bag for you if you’d like to go to the restroom,” I offered, glancing at his backpack.
“I can’t leave right now.”
“Why not?”
Why not--the question that would change everything I had ever known. The response that would send my life in an entirely different direction.
“I’m waiting for the king,” he answered simply.
“You know the king?”
“Well, not yet. I’ve heard a lot about him, though. And I will know him when he comes to get me.”
“I don’t understand. Why would he come and get you if you don’t know him?”
“Because I’ve dedicated my life to serving him. I have loyally stood by in this airport for ten years, waiting for him to come and give me my assignment.”
“Why don’t you just call him and ask him what he wants you to do? He has an open line of communication for all of his citizens.”
“Shh! I don’t want to miss him when he comes.”
Right then, my brother showed up beside me.
“Ready to go, Sis?”
“I sure am,” I said, not giving the man on the bench a second glance. I was disgusted at the way he was wasting his life, just sitting around, waiting for an assignment when all he had to do was call and ask.
My brother asked if everything was okay and I told him about my conversation with the man on the bench. He looked at me and asked me a question that sent me into shock.
“Are we really any different than he is?”
After dropping my brother off, I went straight home and began to ponder what my brother had said. Could it be that I had also chained myself to one spot waiting for directions? I realized that by continuing to wallow in a life that I was unhappy in, never once calling upon my king for guidance, that I had more in common with the man at the airport than I could have ever imagined. I just kept sitting around waiting for help to arrive on its own, perhaps in the form of a handsome man on a fearless steed. I never once thought to call and ask for help in determining the next step in my life--Instead I just waited for it to fall in front of me.
I finally began to pray for my next assignment, for directions to my next destination. I prayed and prayed and daybreak came and went, unnoticed. I truly wanted help, but I found myself unable to let go of the chains that had kept me in this place. I didn’t want my life to change. Even though I was unhappy, at least it was familiar. I didn’t want to take a leap, even if directed to do so, without knowing where I’d land.
“I don’t want to do it,” I cried, hoping that I’d just be taken to an easier place in my life with no effort of my own.
“Why not?” my king whispered gently.
“I’m scared.”
“You asked for an assignment and now you have one.”
“I know. But I‘m still afraid.”
“What are you afraid of?"
"I'm afraid that I'll fall."
"Don’t you know that I will catch you, no matter what?”
“Yes.”
“So will you take this leap?”
“Why not!”