It’s My Honor

We were returning from a post-preaching vacation in Boston, near to where I was born and raised.  Our flight was late departing out of Boston waiting for another flight crew to arrive from Charlotte.  As a result, we missed our connecting flight from Dallas to Tucson.

The airline had accommodated us on a later flight as stand-by passengers which meant our seats were not confirmed yet.  After years and years of travel, and millions of miles accrued I had a lifelong elite status that allowed me to fly first class.  More importantly, it allowed me to sit in the front row which afforded me wheelchair access to my seat without having to transfer to an aisle chair.  Because the next flight was full, my wife and I were not going to be able to sit together, and we wouldn’t be assigned that front row aisle seat.  I ended up seated in Row 30, Seat D, which was the very last row of the aircraft situated right in front of the toilets.

I’d love to tell you that I had a great attitude, graciously accepting the fact that we would still get home safely that night, making myself the hero in this scenario. The truth is that God knows our hearts and minds and motives, the “thoughts and intents of the heart,” and mine was not the greatest.  As I sat in the last row next to a gentleman who thought that both armrests were there for his enjoyment, I silently rehearsed in my mind how wrong this was.  Is this the way the airline treats a loyal, nearly three-million mile flyer?

FIRST TO LAST? Where had I heard that before? Oh, Lord, You’re right, “So the last, and the first will be last.”  Was I hearing the Holy Spirit whisper to mehere’s where you belong, in the last row, in the back of the bus?  

When I broke out of my pity party long enough to look around me at what was going on, this was driven home.  I noticed some 30-40 people, dressed in similar but different colored polo shirts, many of them elderly, and quite a few younger acting as guides and caretakers.  I saw the insignia on their shirts, Honor Flight, and my attitude quickly changed.

An Honor Flight is conducted by a non-profit organization dedicated to transporting as many United States military better as as possible to see the memorials in Washington, D.C. of the respective war(s) they fought in at no cost to the veterans.  They are currently focused on bringing veterans of WWII to the National World War II Memorial, and any veteran with a terminal illness to see the memorial of the war they fought in. On our flight were veterans from WWII, the Korean War, and also, deservedly, those who fought in the Vietnam War.

They were all sitting in front of me.  It was very clear that the volunteers helping genuinely cared about what they were doing and why.  An across-the-county flight with many aging vets was no small undertaking.  It was a labor of love and they were glad to serve these heroic men and women.

I’m always the last person off of any flight.  Because of my wheelchair it’s always the same: first on, last off.  So I got to see when the Honor Flight contingent exited the plane, they were traveling as a group, and their staging area was, you guessed it, the restrooms.  Hey, cross-country or international travel can be tough on the bladder, I know.  While others went hurriedly to gather their luggage,  I got to stop and watch as this Honor Flight made their way into the entry hall where they were greeted, and applauded, and saluted by well-wishers with American flags welcoming them back home.  Oh, what a treat. 

Other countries have their version of Veterans Day, often called Remembrance Day, on the Sunday closest to November 11, with the symbol of the red poppy.  In London it is accompanied by Two minutes of silence to honor those who lost their lives in war.  It is so fitting.

In the end, as a result of watching these men and women, not just the greatest generation, but now the vanishing generation, God had used it to adjust and transform my attitude.  I sat there and thought “It’s my honor” to sit in the back of the plane, and if need be, give up my seat to those far more deserving.  On this Veterans Day, 2019, I realize again how that our nation and our world is a better place because of our veterans.  May God bless the United States of America. 🇺🇸