Description

In a Long Line!

I was on my way to catch a flight home to Salt Lake City walking through Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. This is a very large, sprawling, and busy airport and on this morning, it was buzzing with activity. I finally checked my bags, got through security and passport control and came out into the hub from which the various concourses emerge. It was ringed with different businesses on two floors. I descended the stairs to the lower level, still searching for my gate.

I saw a sign and started in that direction, when all of a sudden, I encountered a line of people directly in front of me. I stopped at the end of the line. I looked to see the end of the line and I couldn’t see it. It stretched on for a very long ways until it the front disappeared around a corner.

“Great!” I thought. “How long is this going to take?”

I stood there for a few minutes when a thought struck me that I don’t usually stand in long lines in a concourse. This was not normal. I studied the situation further and decided to step out of line and see where this line was leading.

I walked up the length of the line to see where it was going and to my surprise, it was a line exiting the concourses to the baggage claim area. That line was not for me! Relieved, I cut through the line and went on to my gate.

The experience stayed with me and caused me to ponder. I remembered being caught in a similar line in that same airport a couple years ago. That line was hours long. What if I had simply trusted the herd and fallen unquestioningly into that line to nowhere. I would have wasted precious time and in the end wound up not where I wanted to be. Have you ever found yourself standing at the back of a long line wondering if you were even supposed to be there?

What is the principle of truth here? The people of this world are queuing up in long lines to get into the Great and Spacious Building without even realizing that the end of the line is misery and damnation. Perhaps before we get in any line, follow any crowd, join any herd, let’s have the courage to step out of line and learn for ourselves where that herd is headed—over a cliff or to a heavenly home.