Aruba-New York

9-21-09
Jet Blue Flt 756
Flt Deck: Ron & Curtis
NY Based Cabin Crew: Donna, Tammy, Sally

Great crew and nice flight. We had no snags and smooth air all the way.
Service was tops as I have experienced throughout this journey.

Fellow Travelers: David and his friend bothe in the retail food services industry.

Both were intense on Killing the 4 hour trip laboring over a crossword booklet.

David was somewhat curious about Tim Donoho's book "Arguing With God".
I am so happy Tim has allowed me to use his work. It is always a great conversation starter.

I went over some of the thought provoking chapter headings with David. That got him to open up a bit about his experiences with "Religion". Pastor Brian has said many times that Christians are sometimes their own worst enemy. Here is an example:

David, like me, was raised in a Catholic home. Yet at a very young age, his family fell apart, and I had the feeling this deeply effected David's outlook on life. He lost faith in a lot of things because of this trauma.
As a teenager, David went to 'Confession'. At the end of his confession his priest told him that he could tell David did not like God. This was shattering news for a young man who was newly seeking answers for his Spiritual direction. His family was falling apart. His faith was shaken. His belief system was in shambles. He went to "Church" to seek guidance.
The answer he received was, "Sorry, You do not like God."

It was obvious that this rebuke hardened David's heart, and made him fear exploring his faith. He told me he has thought about it, but that he kind of put it on the back burner after the "Confession" incident.

I pointed out that the Gospel tells us we need not have a mediator to tell us about our relationship with our Creator. I quoted out several passages from the Bible I had out showing we have but to Profess our Love in the name of our Savior Jesus and communicate our love for Him directly. No Confession; No priest; no church can stand in the way of a personal profession of our faith. We talked about the need to have a personal relationship with God. Just like we have personal relationships with friends. I mean it has to be real and interactive. We have to talk to God as we are now talking to each other.
Further, I explained that sin stands between us and a right relationship with God, and that Jesus has taken that sin by His death on the cross, thus allowing us to be accepted by God.
There was no instant confession or profession, but I could sense that David was sorting this out, and he did take my Blog card to further seek this information.
I used to watch Perry Mason all the time in the 60's and I really did not believe people would just confess to everything just because Perry intimidated them on the stand.
I also believe that just as it was for me, Coming to Jesus and accepting Him sometimes is a process of revelation. Yes the light comes on, but for some of us it just takes time.

Arrival in JFK was smooth,and as always I love the new Terminal 5 there. Jet Blue has one of the best travel facilities in the country, and I speak from 53 airports of experience.

Also of note this trip: The guy sitting in front of me was from Columbia, and is doing the All You Can Jet Pass Also. He was doing four trips,and felt he was getting his money's worth at that. He wanted to see my blog, and I gave him a card too.