Travelogue: Encountering Enthusiasm in the Ether
On a plane with an entire group of air miles enthusiasts whose sole purpose in traveling is to rack up air miles.
For many people, airplane travel is a necessary evil. You grit your teeth and get through the mass of humanity, the affront of TSA, and the discomfort of sitting crammed in the same small space, breathing everyone’s foul air for fifteen hours.
But not for everybody. This week, my oldest daughter and I traveled to Australia to spend the last few weeks of my niece’s maternity leave with her and the family. Australia truly is the antipodes; getting there under normal circumstances is tough, but it was even tougher for me this time, when two planes I was on had maintenance issues and had to turn back to the gate. My daughter and I have excitedly planned to meet each other in LA to travel together, but she got to Australia a full day ahead of me.
Instead, an overzealous ticket agent rerouted me through San Francisco, eager to save me five minutes of arrival time. This put me on the second malfunctioning plane and added an additional two hours to the trip over and above the day added previously. Because of all this action, I got to witness airline mile mania.
Carl Brothers made news in the United Airlines world this week for earning four million airline miles in four years. To celebrate, United management came to hobnob with the hoi polloi. There were balloons and cake, two people dressed in animal costumes, a gold cardboard crown placed on his head while he was kneeling before the United representatives, champagne (toasted at the actual four million mark, some two hours out of Sydney), and little gifts for every person on the plane. Thirty of Carl’s fellow enthusiasts climbed aboard our plane to Sydney to enjoy further celebrations at a swanky restaurant the following evening. They thereby thwarted my dream of getting three seats to myself so I could catch up on some sleep, or at least be able to unfurl my aging body during the long flight.
In good Lutheran tradition, and to put the best construction on my delay, I ask what this all means.
Each person in this world searches for meaning, even if done unintentionally. For many, that meaning is found in family or friends, which is noble but not the ultimate good; for others, that meaning is in one’s core beliefs/religion. In a post-religious world, meaning has become murkier and more tenuous, people become enthusiasts of the strangest things. Romans 1 warns of what happens when we fail to acknowledge our God:
“For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”
As Christians, we are so privileged. Our faith is grounded on the solid rock of Christ, the chief cornerstone, upon which all our worldview and faith are held together. Just compare the funeral of a Christian to that of an unbeliever. Christians can look to their future in Christ and their eternal destiny in a new earth with a new heaven. They can happily declare, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the end I’ll see Him with my own eyes!” The unbeliever leaves his loved one with agony and uncertainty - where did he go, what hope does he have, will I ever see him again? For this reason, he looks untethered to his life and is left clinging to whatever meaning he can pluck out of thin air.
So, as Christians, as salt and light, let us love our neighbors and declare the hope that is within us, knowing there is, in fact, a much better way in the Person and work of Jesus the Messiah.