Lent: Day Thirty-Seven

​There’s a new trend in travel that has been slowly creeping in without little notice.  No, not the taxes or fees that seem to now make up about 20% of the fare. It’s the discount seat. The airlines has a select section seats that they set aside for discounted rates. But this is not really true. Just this week, as we are booking tickets for a trip, my wife Kathleen and I noticed if you want to buy the “discount fare” you can, but if you want to get an assigned seat you have to pay extra. If you want to print out your ticket, you have to pay extra. If you want to bring a suitcase…yes, you have to pay extra.
 
I can understand the seat assignment, and if I put on a true Christian heart I might be able to understand paying for printing out a ticket instead of using an electronic on your phone. But I have never understood, nor will I ever except, an airline charging for bags!  It’s like banks charging you for money. For all intent and purpose we are at their mercy. 
 
I can’t think of a time my family and I have gone on a flight without packing some essentials for when we get to our destination. The airlines know this, and I imagine a boardroom full of stuffy suited people chanting, “Greed is good,” that infamous saying from Oliver Stone’s movie, Wall Street.
 
Karl Marx, the German philosopher and economist, wrote another famous quote, “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.” Now, replace the word “Religion” with the word “Greed” and you might see how airlines are able to get away with charging for bags.

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In some cases, however, greed is good. Take, for example, God and God’s love for you. Dare I say it, God is the purist definition of “greed” in that God wants everything that is you. God is not completely satisfied until God gets what God wants. That is you. All of you. Not just your attention, prayer and voice for an hour on Sunday. God wants you and your everyday.
 
Every moment, minute and second of every day and every month and every year God pursues you. And God will do whatever is needed to bring you into the eternal love and grace that the Creator has made available for you. The incarnation of Jesus is proof. The cross of Jesus is further proof. And the resurrection of Jesus is the ultimate proof.
 
God is greedy in the perfect sense of the word. And there will be no peace or satisfaction in the universe until God gets what God wants. You. And the only way God gets what God wants, which is your total being, is if you leave behind all your baggage and a the essentials you carry that you think you need. 
 
An airline charges you for that stuff because they know you believe you need extra clothes, shoes, toothpaste, and more than 3 ounces of hair product. God says all you need is me. (Bible verse)
 
God doesn’t charge you for this service. In fact, God has already paid the fee for you. The ticket is free too. For anywhere you go, God will be there with you; amazing you and watching out for you always until you reach your final destination: at home with God.

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Lord God, I am not sure that I will ever truly understand why you want me or why you pursue me the way you do; but I am grateful that you continue to love me in such a way that you are not willing to give up on me. You truly are a wonderful parent, and it’s an honor to be your child. Amen. ​

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The Airlines are making record profits off of us. And they still lose our bags!  Read article here