Off to Boston! Heather and I were rather excited to be going away for the weekend alone! We were tired, though, in making the final details to depart. Also, we were so grateful for our wonderful babysitters - Grandma Gail (Heather's mom), and Papa Denny and Grandma Sheri (my mom and dad). They are awesome!
I had some mixed feelings going to Boston. I wasn't feeling that great physically, and I was a bit anxious as to whether God would bless our efforts to encourage others to Join the Race. The people in Boston didn't know me, so why would they get excited about this ministry? I was hopeful they would, but we just didn't know.
Our flight left at 1:00 p.m. It was a full flight, and had Heather and I seated in an aisle and a middle seat, with another gentleman in the window seat. We slept for part of the flight. As we approached Boston, Heather nudged me and said "I think that guy might be a Christian", referring to the gentleman sitting next to her. She noted that he was reading a book that I liked very much, The Language of God, by Francis Collins, head of the human genome project, and a Christian who presents a case for the creation of mankind through a God-guided evolutionary process.
As we got to talking, I asked him how he liked the book. He stated that he agreed with much of it, but also had some disagreements with Dr. Collins. He went on to say that he has sat on some panels with Dr. Collins, leading me to ask him his field of study. I inquired whether he was in the medical field, and he informed me he was. When I asked him his name, Heather nearly fell off her chair! "Richard Swenson," he replied. "The" Dr. Richard Swenson, one of my favorite authors and speakers?!!! Richard Swenson had shaped much of my thought with his ground-breaking books "Margin" and "Overload Syndrome", inspiring me to use his materials in many talks in churches and schools and young adult groups, and also reshape the way I live my life, trying to carve more "margin" into the busyness of life. He also wrote "More than Meets the Eye", another book I've used extensively in my creation talks. And here he was on his way to Boston, sitting next to us! I cherished the next 30 minutes as we talked about my career, frustrations with the current "system", my thoughts on consulting and speaking, his wisdom and advice, our Join the Race efforts, kids, etc - whatever we could cram into 30 minutes! It was great.
As our plane landed, we knew we were off to a great start to Boston. Heather and I got our picture taken with Dr. Swenson, and gave him a Join the Race shirt. I hope he signs up!
If the rest of the trip is anything like our flight to Boston, we were in for a treat.
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