Mornin'. I'm back at the airport, waiting for my 7:05 a.m. flight back to Nashville. I've been up since 3. Hopefully by the time I get on my 13-hour flight I'll be so sleep-deprived that I won't even need the drugs to crash.

Today will be a very busy one. I should be back in Nashville by 8:00, hopefully back home by 9. I'll pick up Bryant from Mom and Dad's and head home to pack the rest of his stuff. While he's napping I plan to start tackling my own packing job. I have a little anxiety about this. But once I get all my stuff out, I'll realize what I don't have and can hopefully go out and get it this evening.

Bryant will go to my sister tonight, since we have to be at the airport at 6:30 tomorrow morning. I'm thinking we may just stay up all night. Even if I don't try to, that's probably what will end up happening, so I guess I'll just see how it plays out.

I just pulled out my chronological Bible to read today's passage. I'm in Ecclesiastes. It's such a depressing book, and yet occasionally makes me chuckle. Like just now when Solomon said that out of 1000 men you will only find 1 who can be called upright, but not a single woman. Think having 700 wives and 300 concubines made him a little bitter towards the fairer sex?

But the verse that really caught my attention was 7:8, "Finishing is better than starting. Patience is better than pride." Wow. I think that's definitely worth meditating on over these next few days of traveling.

I've always known that patience is not one of my stronger points. I've never linked that to pride before. But now that I think about it, it makes complete sense. When I am impatient, it is because something is inconveniencing me. Me, me, me. Like this morning when I went down to the continental breakfast that supposedly started at 5:00 a.m., and it was 5:10, and there was hardly anything out. I had to hunt someone down to get a spoon. Partly because I'd been up a couple of hours, I was very annoyed. But the Lord spoke to me about all the people in Thailand who would gladly eat with their fingers to get anywhere near that continental breakfast bar.

I'm praying that God will change me this week. Make me more patient, a lot more patient. But mostly I pray that my focus will be off of me and on the work He has sent me to do. Everyone says going on a mission trip changes your life. I'm looking forward to it.