Flying with Spiderman

I packed way too much on the flight home from Cardinal Village. I knew I had set myself up for this baggage fail when I jammed a pile of stuff into the car at the beginning of the summer and now I was pushing my way through the aisle of a 737 jet with my guitar, purse, and a huge, bulky backpack with what felt like half of Cardinal Rock inside.

That must have been when the nice man jumped out of his seat with a "Here, I'll help you!" and lifted my guitar into the overhead bin. With a little rearranging, my new friend helped cram the backpack into a side closet and my purse into the overhead for takeoff. We settled into our seats for the flight and began talking about life. The guy's name was Tobey and he told me about his acting work in LA and about his deep commitment to his kids. He seemed to me to be a very kind person with a lot of natural compassion.

Talking to people on an airplane is easy, but when you're a Christian there is a sort of subliminal pressure that you should probably talk to your co-passenger about Jesus some time during the flight. Maybe its because its because some people like the idea of having a captive audience, or maybe it's because people talk more in depth about life on an airplane, figuring that they'll probably never see the other guy again. I've had a couple of Jesus-full conversations on plane rides, one of which we actually lost cabin pressure and had to turn around, giving me a full three hours to share Jesus with a very interested military officer during a flight that should have only lasted 30 minutes. I don't really believe in accosting everyone with the gospel just because they're sitting next to me on an airplane, but I do believe in divine appointments, and I knew God would be faithful to tell me if he had a reason for me sitting next to Tobey during that flight.

After I read a few chapters of this book about divine appointments (coincidence?) and Tobey took a nap, we resumed our conversation. I asked Tobey about his production company he mentioned earlier, which lead him into talking about his inspirations, which ultimately lead him into sharing deep glimpses of his past. Tobey had a rough life. He entrusted my ears with difficult emotions he was carrying towards his parents and the steps he was taking in his heart towards forgiveness. As he opened his heart, I began to see the design behind the conversation we were having and I stepped into my role. I shared with Tobey my own unforgiveness and old areas of bitterness and how love saved me. We talked about love for a while; how perfect, transcendent and cleansing love is. By the time I mentioned Jesus' name we were already talking about him.

At the end, Tobey told me he didn't think much of God, but he paused, saying that Jesus seemed different. He said he was interested in studying who Jesus is, inviting me to throw him a book title for some investigation. We ended our conversation with breif encouragement, exited the plane, and headed to different parts of the Seatac Airport with a warm goodbye.

On Sunday I didn't know why God delayed my flight out of California two days. I was mad. I wanted to go home. But God knows what he's doing. He orchestrates people's encounters to suit his plan to rescue each of us.

So maybe I missed my flight on Sunday so that I could be on flight 471 yesterday and share Jesus with Tobey Maguire, the man who is known to millions of fans as Spiderman.