Return of the Prodigal Bag

My wonderfully kind parents took me to the airport at a ridiculously early hour this morning to catch my flight to Nashville to attend my annual church administration conference.  I skipped through security, had a nice, uneventful flight, and all was well until I stood at the baggage claim area watching the door shut to my carousel leaving me bag-less.  I’ve never had this happen before.  At first I was calm.  I kept telling myself it would be alright.  And then as the hours passed with no information about the suitcase, I started getting nervous.  No.  Take that back.  I started freaking out!

I had packed my favorite work clothes, a nice outfit for my certification graduation on Tuesday, my toiletries, my favorite shoes and my expensive camera in the suitcase.  The thoughts racing through my head of what I was going to have to do to survive over the next few days was daunting.  I’ve calmed down a lot of the last few years, but I was letting the worry monster come out this afternoon.

I texted my friends and family and asked them to pray for my suitcase.  I know that may sound a little silly, but they all understood my pain and prayed like good friends and family do.

Finally at 3:30, the hotel called to say my bag was here.  The prodigal bag had returned!

First Uber Ride & Church Crush

There is a large church in Nashville that I have a huge church crush on.  I follow this church, get ideas from them and basically drool over the wonderful things they are doing in their community, the amazing communication pieces they put together, etc.  They are the real deal!

Since I was coming to Nashville, I have been dying to attend one of their services.  A few days ago, I started having doubts though.  I was going to have to somehow get a ride from my hotel to the church.  I didn’t know how much that was going to cost, and I started freaking out that it would be really expensive.  I told Chris about all this, and he was like “You need to go.  You’ve been wanting to go for a long time.  Just go.”  So, OK, I decided to go.

I’ve been intrigued by Uber, so I did some research and decided that was the way I wanted to travel to the church service.  So, I went downstairs, pulled up the app and requested my first ride.

On a side note, I had been texting one of my best friends about the suitcase incident and then about how I was going to do the uber/church experience thing.  She texted back saying that she felt like she needed to pray more for the Uber ride than she did for my suitcase.  She really thought I was going to be kidnapped, tortured and left for dead.  Once I saw who my first ride was with, I texted my friend back and said I was riding with a nice lady.  She said to take her picture in case we needed evidence later.  🙂  Then when I got to the church, she texted back that I am nuts.  I can’t deny that!

I LOVED the Uber experience!  On the way to the church, the lady and I had a good conversation about church and why she finds it hard to fit in at church as a divorced, single woman.  We talked through that and then I heard all about her sons and grandkids in Florida.  She was so incredibly nice, and it was amazing how open she was about her life!

(Instead of taking a selfie with the driver, I stuck to just taking a picture of the sticker in her car.)

On the way back, my driver was a guy around my age who is married with a 3-year-old daughter.  He is in between jobs right now (he’s a banker), and is looking for a job that is a good fit for him and that he feels like he can be at for a long time.  He was super nice too!

At the church service, I obviously looked like it was my first time there, so I was treated like a queen!  Volunteers helped me every step of the way to my seat.  The service was awesome, and it was so neat to see all of these people that have been inspirations to me doing what they do!

(Me pointing to the big church sign after the service was over.)

When I got back to the hotel, I tweeted that I had taken an Uber ride to the church.  The church immediately tweeted back asking if I was still there.  I said no…that I was back at the hotel.  They then replied back that they wished they could have given me a ride back!  How amazing is that?!!  I should have tweeted earlier while I was still at the church because I would have LOVED that!

So, while things didn’t really go as I planned today (having my bag, going to the pool this afternoon, not having to wait for hours for a hotel room to become available, etc.), it was a great day!  There for awhile, it seemed like it just wasn’t meant to be for me to go to the church service, but it all worked out!  I had a grand adventure today!

Now I’m ready to see the adventures that the next few days hold!