A week ago Friday, Nadine and I flew to Chicago to be with our oldest daughter Debi and her roommate Patty.  We were detained by an incoming plane and finally reached our destination at 1:30 on Saturday morning.  After catching up with the girls we slid into bed around 3:00 and slept accordingly.

We were given our agenda for the Saturday experience which consisted of a lot of down time and an impromptu experience at the Shakespearian theatre.  We walked about a mile to a fantastic meat experience were you pick out your barbecue meat (pork ribs, beef brisket, Italian sausage) with side dishes of cole slaw, beans, and corn and bacon.  The meal was served on aluminum trays with our drinks.  It was the best barbecue I had ever eaten and was stuffed when we finished.  We walked a couple of blocks to catch a bus and rode to within 3 blocks of our destination.

The problem wasn’t the walk.  It was the rain.  Torrential rain.  Horizontal blowing rain.  Lots of rain.  And no umbrellas.  We just so happened to be standing in the doorway of Sacks 5th Ave store so we went in and they had two umbrellas that are wind proof left.  I also eyed some large bags that had under the counter for large purchases.  Lightbulb.  An Ah ha moment.  We could also use the bags and cut a couple of holes in the bags for rain coats.  You can see the results below.

We stayed relatively dry with the parts of our selves that were covered by the umbrellas and the rain coats as we quickly made our way to the Shakespearian Theatre.  As soon as we opened the door for our impromptu experience, the loud-speaker blurted out, “Due to the flooding of the stage and the bar area which hasn’t happened in years, we are canceling tonight’s performance.  You can get a refund of you tickets at the ticket booth.  Washed out.  Canceled performance.

But not washed up.  The whole experience of being presented with a dilemma and figuring out a solution and working as a team was a wonderful connector for the four of us and we loved the interaction that the situational environment produced.  Romans 8:28 is a perfect verse for what we encountered.  God causes “washed out” experiences to turn out for His good if we choose to see the positive in the experience.  The relationships grew to deeper places with an experience we will have in common for the rest of our lives.

On this journey through life, there will be experiences that seem to wash out what we had planned, but we have the opportunity to turn those washed out experiences into opportunities for deepening our connections.