Greetings!
Let me go back to November 11th, Veterans Day. I was
traveling to a project, saw a guy in uniform three rows ahead of me.
You may already know this, but it bears repeating. When I see people
in uniforms, I buy. Whatever they are having. So I told the lady who
was moving the cart down the isle that if that soldier wanted anything,
I was buying. She did exactly that, he asked who had bought. She told
him what I had told her, an American citizen who appreciates you. So
he gave her a challenge coin to give to me. It was inscribed "Command
Sergeant Major in recognition of excellence". I was blown away.
I
have bought lots of soldiers stuff, first time I had ever seen or heard
of a challenge coin. I went to my meeting and asked if there was a
veteran in the group, we had a army vet present. Showed him the coin,
he was impressed, you just don't see that coin every day. I have
showed it all over the country, like some kid with a new knife, of
something. OK bad analogy, but you get my drift.
Turns out the story
behind the challenge coin is this. When a soldier does something above
the call of duty, a commanding officer sometimes gives him a challenge
coin. If he does not have the challenge coin on him when he sees the
officer again, he owes him a beer, or whatever.
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Now move ahead a month later...
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I had just finished a project in Orlando, and had just gone through security. I put the coin into a small dish and sent it through. As usual they looked a long time at my briefcase, it has about $175 in quarters in one pouch. Well, maybe not $175, but a lot.
When I get change in the airport, I put it into the bag, so they always look at it twice. It took some time, there were questions, they finally cleared my bag. So I picked up my luggage, got into the shuttle that runs from the terminal to the gate, took the ride to gate 46. I realized I was hungry, stopped at a food court, ordered my food, then realized my coin was missing.
You probably are thinking, get a grip!
It's only a coin. Not to me, it was something pretty special. Now I am not sure what to do.
If I go back on the shuttle, the doors open on the outside of the cars, you get out and are in a hallway that goes back into the terminal. I asked an airport guy if there was any way to get back into the back side of the security area, he said no, you have to go back into the terminal, then back through security. Nuts. I still had an hour, so it probably would have been OK, but you never know, things can go bad fast in airports.
So I went back, and I actually said a little prayer, asking God for guidance. When I went through the lines, you have choices of about 8 rows. Not even sure exactly which row I went through, so I planned on asking one of the TSA guys when I went back through security. Then I experienced a miracle. Yup, in my humble opinion, a real, live miracle. The shuttles have two sets of doors, double doors. The outside sets take you to the terminal, after the shuttle is empty, the inner sets open up, and the people who cleared security come into the shuttle. There is a TSA guy sitting at the entry to security to be sure that everyone is going from security to the shuttle, not the other way.
So it is just a woman and me in the shuttle car, it comes into the terminal, and we watch the outside set of doors open to the terminal. The inside set move, but don't open. They click several times, but don't open. The woman next to me says" we're trapped!" I said no, we just leave when the doors from security open. They opened, all kinds of people rushed in, and we saw our chance to scoot out. So I did, and the minute I walked into the corridor the TSA guy turns his back on me, and walks away.
Wow! I follow him up to security, never been on this side before. Lots of TSA guys milling around, and bunches of x-ray machines all looking alike. And I cannot remember where I came through. I asked the first guy I saw, told him my problem of the missing coin. He said "Oh, the challenge coin, I got it over in lost and found". He walked my over, handed me the coin, told me he had 8 of them from his days in the military. He was impressed that I had one, since I didn't look the military type, being an antique and all.
So you may say, that is a pretty pathetic miracle. You were expecting me to see a vision, hear about someone cured of leprosy, throwing away their canes, or one of those "regular miracles" you hear about. And I realize this is live, goes out to a lot of folks, some who may not share my feeling at all on this subject. I guess my point is this. I really felt great about the fact I got my coin back, and in my humble opinion, it was God's hand that put all that together.
If God cares about my little coin enough to stop the doors on a shuttle from opening, then open the doors on the wrong side, have a guard take a break just when I walk out into a corridor, and point me to the one guy out of 50 who had my coin, he cares about our lives and what is going on. And I think he wants me to share this story, just to prove that he is in the details of our lives. I do believe that he cares about the details, the Bible tells us he knows the hairs on our heads.
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My
prayer for you this year is that he will show you something marvelous
so that you realize he is involved in everything we are about. It may
be a huge thing, or a small thing, but you will notice it immediately
as something that you could not have imagined doing on your own, it
will be what a lot of people call a lucky break. I have been involved
in that sort of thing in the past, this was different, and you will
know it when it hits. Sorry to get preachy, but on the other hand,
someone needed to hear this message...
Thanks for listening,
Sales Improvement Professionals Inc.
Jim Hinshaw
1281 E. Magnolia, #D-145
Fort Collins, Colorado 80524
Office: (970) 635-5675
Email: JimHinshaw@SipTraining.com
www.SipTraining.com
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