where do you turn when lost?

I was struck this week by the intersection of two great stories; the first from Kari Lynn Dell (@Kidell), a wonderful writer whose descriptions of rodeo family life often brighten my day, and every now and then knock me clear off my chair with laughter.  Like many of her readers I too have been to the Lake McDonald trailhead she describes in her most recent story, and remember finding myself completely befuddled by the total lack of relationship between my own map’s description of where it said I was and my physical surroundings.

Wrong map? Map flips over.  Nope, right map.  Wrong lake? Over-the-shoulder glance back to parking lot, memory of sign with the right lake’s name.  Nope, right lake.  Growing apprehension.  Misread map? Map crumples, flips back over, upside down and back to right, offering the same inexact blather clearly written as a joke by someone who was standing far away from here, or maybe so long ago it didn’t look like this.  Yeah, like before the glacier receded I decide.

Having confirmed my confidence in my physical location, I studiously re-read the descriptions of the the trail, confidence dimming that the map and this trail have any common thread; a handy thing once one is deep into the wild and interested finally in the return trip.  At last however, thoughts of it’s a loop, how wrong can I go? surface as I trek off around the lake.

But where would you turn if you really did get lost?  On the trail in Glacier Park, tools like a GPS, sat phone or the inevitable tourist from New Jersey thrashing up the trail give comfort help is at hand if every really needed.  In life, the tools are not always so obvious.  But then you find that there are people like Chester R. Cook, whose daily work generously offer those lost on their own road the same real comfort.

Mr. Cook, or better the Rev. Dr. Cook, has been working with a team of people inside the Atlanta Hartsfeld-Jackson airport at the Interfaith Airport Chaplaincy, a sanctuary in one of the busiest airports in the world.  As regular LITF readers know, I travel a great deal and can appreciate the stressful and confusing, even debilitating problems that can arise for those without the resources or knowledge to manage the sometimes major bumps in the road.  Rather than waiting for folks to find his chapel however, Rev. Cook’s proactive outreach searches the airport for people in distress.  Helping out travelers whose tight connection is at the other side of the airport by flagging down a transport cart, or working directly with airline officials to convince them that stranding the great grandmother isn’t a great idea, or providing a compassionate ear for someone just stuck in the airport without a way out all seem just a normal part of his day.  Reaching out to those individuals in need in both big and small ways strikes at the heart of our own mission, and we loved hearing this NPR piece about these many stories of both material and spiritual assistance offered by the IAC’s volunteers.  They are an incredible testament to the potential of human generosity, and inspire us at Lost in the Feed today to quietly support their efforts.  And next time I’m scheduling a trip through ATL, I look forward booking a later connect, so that I can stop in at the chapel to say thanks in person for all the work they do each day.