Roll with it

Two years ago I went on a business trip to Norway to look at some catamaran work boats they build there. Below is an excerpt from a frustrated diary/email I sent to my wife.

"...this trip has been the best and worst of times, it's actually comical how many things have gone wrong I can't wait to get home to my less stressful job! Let's recap so far and I'll bring you up to date with the latest news:

Day 1 - Vancouver/Minneapolis/somewhere over the Atlantic
The worst food I've ever had on an airplane or anywhere. I eat the edible bits and leave the rest.

Day 2 - Amsterdam/Bergen
(The two gentlemen I travelled with) are given the John Candy and Steve Martin cuddle suite. This is a tiny room with two small beds pushed together with barely enough room to walk on either side. I complain to the concierge he looks at the room and makes a motion with his hands that we can separate the two beds. I get them a real suite with separate beds.

Day 4 - Bergen
I booked a taxi for the morning for 715 am to take us to the bus depot but it is mysteriously cancelled. Maybe someone else took it, we walk quickly to the bus depot.

The rest of the day goes fantastic and I should've known that there would be a catch, which there was... I arrived back at our hotel to find my key doesn't work in my door and we've been evicted! Apparently we didn't book 3 nights, which I did. [The reader should know I am borderline OCD, I wrote down the dates we needed and read them to the guy at the front desk when we checked in. This neurotic compulsion with checking and accuracy doesn't always help but it proves useful to focus righteous indignation in the appropriate direction] Thankfully, [Our Norwegian contact] has booked us two rooms in two other hotels and the hotel gives me a $320 discount for our troubles.

I get back after dinner but when I open my email [to check for confirmation of our flights to Trondheim] I find three airline confirmations that all say "CANCELLED"!... Nice. I send an email to my wife and go to bed hoping that when I wake up 5hrs later that God will help us get a taxi on time to the airport and that we in fact do have reservations at the airport.Mike and Fabian are sure I've done something wrong to have all this tribulation but they don't understand why they're being dragged into it.

Day 5 - Bergen
I realise that I cannot control even the simplest aspects of this trip. My pride is trampled and my wisdom perplexed. I decide to stop worrying and trust God. I get a good night's sleep. The taxi actually arrives and picks me up in the morning. "

It should come as no surprise but once I made the decision to relax and let go of control the rest of the trip went smoothly. Our flights weren't cancelled, we didn't get kicked out of any more hotel rooms and all our devices functioned as advertised. We did spend one night in Hell, not the place reserved for the eternal punishment of the Devil and his angels, but a Norwegian town that shares the same name. Maybe "hell" means something else in Norske...

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. - 2 Corinthians 4:7-10

I've learned trials and tribulation build character just like pressure and carbon build diamonds, best thing to do is to roll with it.