In Due Season

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” -Galatians 6:9

I think I can honestly testify to this. If we’re willing to wait, patiently, on God long enough… in time, He will answer our prayers. Most likely, it will happen when we least expect it. In God’s perfect timing. In due season.

When I last wrote here, it was in January. I was dealing with quite a lot of uncertainty and great stress as I truly, for the first real time ever, had come face to face with my own mortality (with the diagnosis of a chronic heart condition) and agonized over what it all meant for my career and my life going forward. Even more, I was still seeking answers to prayers for my living situation and better (MUCH better!) job opportunities. As of January, at the time of my last post on this blog, these prayers continued to remain unanswered… even after many years. Waiting. Patiently. Well, okay, sometimes not so patiently.

But I did not give up. And then… in due season, God answered.

Now in the post I previously referred to, titled “From The Heart”, I went into great detail covering everything that was going on leading up to Christmas 2021. As such, I won’t repeat the whole story here but… there is a piece I left out. Two days before Christmas, on the 23rd, I had to go to Fairfax to get my medical re-certification done. Being as the clinic was just off Route 50 and pretty close to Arlington, I decided to go and do something I’d been wanting to do for quite some time. After I was finished at the clinic, I drove on out to Gravelly Point. It’a a little park in Arlington, accessible by the George Washington Parkway, that sits right between the Potomac River and Reagan National Airport. From what I had heard, it offers quite a spectacular view of planes taking off from and landing at Reagan, otherwise known by its airport code “DCA.”

While I absolutely do NOT like flying, I do enjoy watching them from the ground. My visit to Gravelly Point on that morning definitely did not disappoint. Those planes fly right over the park and are very close when they pass!

But again, I am perfectly happy watching from the ground as long as I am not on board one of those things! I’ve only ever flown twice in my entire life, and the last time was in 1998. Interestingly enough though, as a side note, one of my very earliest memories in life was of my very first plane ride. It was in 1981 and I was only 3 years old. We (my mom and dad, and sister and I) were traveling from this very same airport, known only as “National” at the time as Reagan himself had only just begun his first term in the White House... on a one-way trip to Boston due to the sudden passing of my grandmother. I actually do not recall the vast majority of that flight, but there is one image that stands out and is very vivid, even four decades later.

It was right after taking off. In order to avoid the restricted airspace above the nation’s capitol, planes departing DCA to the north have to make a rather sharp bank to the left almost immediately after lifting off the runway. That motion can be quite startling to unsuspecting passengers, such as the three year old boy sitting by the window on the left side of the plane. It’s probably why I remember it. In response, I happened to look out the window and remember just being absolutely amazed at how tiny all the streets and cars and people were! For some reason, that image has stayed with me all this time… much like a photograph.

Speaking of photographs (and getting back on topic), I was able to capture quite a number of pictures and videos on that morning at the park. I also took some time to reflect and ponder some things. Having just gotten re-certified to drive commercially again following the scary cardiac incident I had experienced, I couldn’t help but wonder if it was really worth it. After all, I had been praying for a long time over the prospect of moving on to a better career. I really wanted to be off the road. Yearned for that, in fact. I knew somewhere out there, there was a better job and a better life for me. As I sat and watched yet another plane lift its wheels off the runway and fly right over me, I quietly wondered what it would be like to work at the airport.

I tucked that thought away to the corner of my mind, figuring I would revisit that idea sometime later. Then I headed back “home.” Well, not really home.. just back to the motel that I had been staying in for what seemed like an eternity.

Eventually, in late January, I once again separated from the trucking company I was working for… only two months after my hire date. I (somewhat half-heartedly) began looking into other jobs but I just couldn’t make it work out financially. So, regrettably, I put myself back in the driver’s seat… this time with a company that had a yard down near Richmond. My 4th employer within only 15 months… after having had only three different employers over the course of the 14 years prior to 2020. At the time, I said to myself “this is it… this is my last ride, no matter what.” It had to be!  I was getting really REALLY weary at this point!

Through the middle of March, things at my new “job” were pretty uneventful. Until the morning I was to return to duty following a weekend off. March 14th. I had a dream that morning, a type of flashback really, about the fatal truck crash which I had witnessed in real life back in 2014. It certainly wasn’t the first time I’d had one of those dreams (as those of you who’ve been following me for a while know quite well)… but it was the final straw.

I could no longer continue to drive for a living, and I knew it. So, I applied for a job at the airport. And I prayed like I hadn’t in many years. And I waited, and prayed… and then prayed some more.

And… God answered!

On March 30th, I was hired by Piedmont, a subsidiary of American Airlines as a ramp agent… a part of the ground crew team stationed out of DCA. That is, at Washington Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia.

As if that wasn’t enough of an answer to prayer… almost simultaneously, I was offered a room in a real house to stay in (by someone in church I’ve known for over 20 years) with rent at a mere fraction of what I was paying at the motel.  I checked out of that motel in Dumfries one last time just a few days later and moved into the new house… officially becoming a Dale City resident again (where I grew up) for the first time in nearly 8 years! The house is so close to my old middle school, as well as the townhouse I lived in while attending that school.

It was all quite an unbelievable yet spectacular turn of events. It was just what I had been waiting on, and then some, for such a long time!  In due season.

In closing, I just want to say… there are really no words I could type here that could possibly convey just how much joy I really felt (and still do feel) over finally being off the road and in a much more stable position in my life now. The timeline of things that happened which led up to this turning point... the little details like the trip to Gravelly Point and even the recollection of one of my earliest memories in life, as well as  countless others... is a story that really could only be written and woven together by God Himself. In due season.

It’s not perfect by any means (nothing in this life here on earth really is), and the new job certainly isn’t an easy one, but it’s so much better than it was before. A long long awaited answer to prayer! It was definitely worth waiting for!

I'll say it again. It was... most definitely... worth waiting for!

I am not a truck driver anymore. The end of the road... finally came about!