Airport Security

            Ken and I travel a lot - especially during this busy summer season at our ministry.  And traveling means airports... and airports mean wheeling up in my chair to the security checkpoint to be screened and scanned before I can head to my gate.  And I never know what to expect.

            Sometimes the TSA security lady - and, yes, they always assign me a woman screener because I have to get frisked... anyway, sometimes I'll get a woman who just takes that little wand thingy and swipes it over me from head to foot, and that's it.  Other times, I'll be assigned a security screener who will ask me to stand up and I'll tell her I can't, that I'm a quadriplegic. And then she'll ask me if I'm sure "I can't stand up?" and I'll repeat, "Yes, I'm sure."  Then that same screener will ask me to take my shoes off... and I have to remind her again that I'm quadriplegic and that I can't lean down and take my shoes off... then she asks if someone could lift me so she could please take my seat cushion and put it through the scanner... and then I'll have tell her again that I can't stand or be lifted without the aid of my husband... Then finally, they'll swipe my arm splints, my batteries on my wheelchair; I mean, these people are thorough. 

            And you know what, I don't complain. And I always, always thank them for trying to do a good job.  I'm not the sort of person in a wheelchair who complains about the whole routine even though it's very obvious I don't fit the "profile"... I mean, c'mon, my spinal cord injury and paralysis is unmistakable.  Nevertheless, I thank them for being thorough. 

            And you want to know why?  Earlier this year over in Bagdad, a man in a wheelchair who was laden with explosives persuaded security guards to push him into an Iraqi operations center.  When he got into the room he blew himself up in an attack that killed the deputy commander.  It's clear that Al Qaeda is getting very creative with their awful schemes.  Whether or not the man was indeed paralyzed was not clear in the news report.  But that's not the point...

            I have often thought as I have been screened and scanned and frisked and whisked and patted up and down... I have often thought that a wheelchair really could hide some pretty dangerous stuff.  So, hey, when I meet other people in wheelchairs in those little screening areas?  When we're sitting there together waiting for our shoes to come back from the scanner?  If the person is complaining, I'll tell them about that news report from earlier this year.  And I'll remind them that it's a wicked enemy out there.  The Bible says in Matthew chapter 10 that we should be as shrewd as a snake when it comes to facing any kind of warfare, be it spiritual or very physical, real and up close. 

            So, friend, do what I often do in an airport.  If the men and women of the Transportation Safety Administration are doing a good and thorough job at the security checkpoint, tell them thanks.  No, that's not being shrewd... but it is being gentle as a dove.

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