SITTING WITH GOLIATH

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sitting with goliathPretty sure he was a Philistine, but who am I to judge. I thought I was pretty special, well maybe lucky, but I was pretty stoked to do something that I’d never done before. It wasn’t planned – it’s not like I was going out of my way to achieve status, but luck or maybe bad luck was to blame… Probably just another lesson I needed a refresher course on…

Something came up, kinda typical of how in life unexpected circumstances seem to have a way of finding all of us. So it found me out of town in need of getting home rapido. As it turns out, after all, the years of flying commercial airlines, I finally hit the frequent flyer jackpot. My boarding number was A-1.

Yup, the first person to board the plane.  I stood humbly in line… a little out of sorts to be first in line. After all, I can’t recall being first in line even as a kid who wanted to be selected by the teacher to be first, but seemed to end up fighting to be last and being reprimanded for the ruckus.

I quickly scanned the empty cabin, I considered the exit row closest to the window for leg room but wanted to be the first one off the plane to be able to hit the ground running – check that,  jet way running. I was like Lord Farquad from the movie Shreck trying to make the quick decision about which girl to pick. Even the big dumb guy holding up two fingers was whispering in my ear, “Pick numba free, ma Lawd!”

I selected the aisle seat in the first row that’s just a smidge closer to the door than the seats across the aisle. I’ve had my share of interesting folks seated next to me on airplanes as well as some big people over the years, but the descendant of Goliath took it to a whole new level – make that height and width…

Goliath junior had NBA apparel on, but I didn’t recognize him. When I extended my legs as far as possible, I could rest the bottom of my feet, legs fully extended, against the partition that separates the seating area from the beverage serving area. The front of Junior’s tennis shoes touched the partition and his knees were directly above them, he was that big and cramped. His head was literally less than twelve inches from the overhead bins.

Junior’s body melted over the sides of the arm rest and filled in the voids of my sweltering body…I refused to surrender the whole arm rest while sitting with Goliath… The flight was just over and hour but felt like twenty-four… my little insignificant victory quickly went south.

Isn’t that how it is with most things in life? Not to be pessimistic, but we receive something, significant or insignificant, and we automatically conjure up expectations in our mind that reality obliterates. Most of us tend to think the next thing we get will make our world perfect and we’ll be fulfilled… Even the greatest gifts in life have their own set of issues.

It’s never the next good or cool thing that brings gratification or peace in life. Working for fulfillment on the outside always causes grave disappointments on the inside. Especially when the Spirit of our Father resides there…

The only insignificant little victory that had me feeling like I was a descendent of King David was the way I refused to let Goliath Junior intimidate me into giving up the arm rest…