Tag: flights

Turbulence

If you’ve ever travelled by plane then I’m sure the above title holds a meaning to you. Maybe you can even think back about a time when your flight suddenly experienced turbulence. If you’ll be honest for a moment, then let me ask you a simple question. In that moment or moments of the sudden drops, sideways wiggles, wing dips and rises, did you at any of those moments during the turbulence panic? Let’s be honest here. I get if you’re a pilot and are used to this or maybe a flight attendant and it’s just another day at the office. It’s just that for the rest of us, your office is above 30k feet.

I remember being on a flight once with a pilot who was sitting across the aisle from me and watched as he explained to his daughter and others, that the turbulence we were feeling was similar to potholes on roadways. It DID make me feel better, but for just a bit as I watched him relax and fall asleep for a bit. If he woke up and panicked then I decided it would be something that I should panic about as well.

There are of course very nice pilots who will announce the turbulence ahead of time so we as passengers can prepare and then the best pilots will also announce they are seeking a better altitude or route to avoid or at least minimize the bounces and sideways shimmies. I like those pilots.

But when the bounces and bumps happen without warning, I panic for a moment and visualize that there is something wrong with the plane- I admit I like window seats near the engines so I can take a quick peak out the window from time to time to make sure we’re all good there. Being married to an aircraft mechanic and manufacturer who actually builds the engines is both a blessing and a curse. When he is flying with me and gets nervous, well then I get nervous. Or when he explains many of the issues in manufacturing that come up, well I take note of every noise and bump on the airplane.

So, what I am really trying to say is I feel like we are all on this flight lately that has had many incidents of turbulence. I am viewing this from here in the United States and am wondering when this crazy turbulent journey will end. I am not alone. We are beginning to wonder who is the pilot and why isn’t he changing course or adjusting altitude so we can all just take a breath and have the seatbelt signs go out.

There are some people who, just like on a plane flight, will ignore the seatbelt signs, get up, walk around and ignore the cabin stewards instructions, while the rest of us are strapped in, living in fear of the next big thing. Will it be a drop, or a side ways shimmy or a wing dip. There are random announcements from the cockpit, stating everything is amazing and “I am the best pilot in the world” but we feel the dips and drops and worry that we are all about to go down.

It would be nice to hear a voice of truth that the plane is flying safe and we are all going to be okay. But for some of us we don’t believe the messages of truth are being shared, just more propaganda. The real truth doesn’t come from those in power or even from those behind pulpits, it comes from the original source of truth, the Bible.

The world has always had its share of turbulence and the people mentioned in the Bible faced many of the same issues we find ourselves in today. Wars, abuse, greed, murder, theft, jealousy, divorce, sickness, death, miscarriage, loss of employment, money struggles, taxes to be paid, wrongful imprisonment. These are not new. Our nature as humans has not changed. There isn’t a utopian society. Mankind will always be bent away from God and choose self and convenience over sacrifice.

Does this mean we should just give up? Resign ourselves to hopelessness? No. We can rest assured that those who seek harm to others will be held accountable. We are ALL held accountable before God. God is not a respecter of persons, and He doesn’t base our goodness on our own standards, but on his. the Bible says that God will not be mocked.

None of us can claim to be Jesus or as good as Jesus, but we can all humble ourselves before God and ask for His protection and guidance. It might feel right now that the pilot is missing or at least not taking the world on a safe flight plan, but what we need to remember is that God created this world and preserves it, man doesn’t control everything and it is up to God’s timing to land the plane.

I am reminded through this struggling time that Jesus slept quietly on the boat with the disciples while the wind and the waves around the boat scared them and they thought they were going to die. When they woke up Jesus, He asked them where is your faith? and commanded the wind and the waves to stop and they did. (Matthew 8:23-27, Mark 4:35-41 and Luke 8:22-25). Jesus also said “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (NIV, John 16:33). Despite the trouble or turbulence in the moment, don’t forget that God is still in control, we can lean into that and place out trust in Him, not in politics or religion, but wholly completely on Him. God bless- Nancy

Held Back

I walked down the aisle and found my seat. I sat down and stared out the window as the early morning sun streamed across the wing. The glare of the sun was bright, but I watched as the ground crew busied themselves with pre-flight duties. I was ready to get home. This was the second flight of a two flight journey that would bring me home after two weeks overseas. My husband and I had just landed an hour before from a red eye overnight flight and we were both tired.

It was then that the pilot broke the silence and informed us that there was a slight delay due to waiting on bags from connecting flights. I breathed a sigh of relief, as I thought, well, maybe the bags are from our flight. So, I guess I don’t mind the wait.

A few minutes later the captain once again spoke, and yet there would be another delay. This time for aircraft maintenance. A seal needed checking. It is at these times that I am glad to be traveling with my husband, an FAA aviation mechanic. He turned to me and said”It’s probably a door seal” What!? yeah I think that would be important at 30,000 feet. Better check that before we take off. So, I didn’t really mind the delay. I was glad they were holding back the flight. As much as I wanted to get back home and rest from my jet lag, a delay for safety was understandable.

But, I have to admit, I don’t like delays to my plans, otherwise. I like everything to follow my action plan, without delays. My plans, my way, in my time table. Funny thing is, that is not how this world works. I apparently, am not in charge, even though I deceive myself into thinking that way at times.

Have you ever felt like something was just holding back your progress? Whether at work, life status, or spiritually? We want to make our plans and stick with them, but many times we might feel like it is one step forward and two steps backwards. Part of the focus of this blog is to explore growing in faith through the challenges of life. And there will be challenges in this life. We simply cannot escape them. Life is full of change. We grow as babies into children, into preteens, young adults, adults, and finally senior adults. There are many changes and challenges. Likewise, we grow as Christians from baby,into newbies, and then into mature Christians. But this journey takes the rest of our lives. It is not a quick growth track. God uses all of our challenges to mature our faith. He has a plan to help us in our journey. And it is always in His timing.

When I think about timing and the Bible, I think about two stories of two different Bible characters. Character might not be the right term, because these involve real people, not just fiction characters.

The first is from the book of Ester. If you are familiar with this story, then you might recall a well quoted verse from the book. “And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” This is an often repeated verse from Ester’s uncle, Mordecai. Mordecai was attempting to encourage Ester to go forward and meet with her husband, the King, in order to reverse a law that would have wiped out the Jewish people, Ester’s people. Ester, a Jewish young woman had been chosen to be Queen after a long preparation time. It is an interesting account of faith and trust in God’s provision and His timing.

The second I am reminded of is from the Book of Acts and involves the Apostle Paul. Acts 16:7 records this; “When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.” (NIV) Luke, the author of the book adds; “So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas.” (vs. 8) I’ve always wondered why they were allowed to go to Mysia and just how were they stopped. No clear explanation is given, but later we read that Paul had a vision after this that called him to Macedonia. Still, it is one of those interesting passages to consider.

The first example is clear it was the right time for Ester to speak up and perhaps was the very reason why she was chosen as Queen, instead of other women who were also in the running for the position of Queen. It was the right timing. In the second example of Paul, it clearly wasn’t the right timing or the right place, so they were held back from visiting Mysia ( now Turkey).

We might find ourselves in a situation in which God says you are where you need to be ( the right place, for such a time as this) or even: not now, wait, this isn’t the right time or place (being held back) just like my flight home. What I couldn’t understand, sitting there, waiting to taxi out, the pilot knew, the ground crew knew, and the mechanics knew. I just did not know. I could only speculate. I was just waiting for it to be the right time to move forward.

That is the thing about our faith journey, we do not fully understand why there are delays. But, God knows. Maybe we are not yet ready for the next growth step. Or maybe the others around us are not ready.

If you’ve ever been grounded on board a plane, you probably waited it out, trusting the pilots, crew and ground mechanics. So to speak you placed your complete trust in them. You had to, unless of course you know how to fly the plane yourself, but even then you would need to wait. And by the way, on our flight, there were other pilots and crew onboard, flying as passengers to their next airport assignment. They could have taken over, because they were qualified. (How many times do we think we can take over for God and can manage our own lives?) But, without the mechanical go ahead, and the place in line to take off down the runway, even the other pilots on board had to just sit and wait it out. We were all held back for a few minutes on that flight.

Trusting God should be as easy as trusting pilots and mechanics with getting our flights safely off the ground. The struggle we have, or at least I think I have is letting go of my own control of my life and my time table. I want to go ahead and fly my own plane, so to speak. And most of the time I do not understand the hold backs in my life. I probably won’t fully understand most of them until I can personally ask Jesus why someday. But, by then I probably won’t care. So, if you are like me, then let’s just pray for each other to stop and quiet our busy thoughts that drive us crazy about why life feels like we are being held back. Remember its not our timing, but God’s. We might not fully understand, but we can sit back and trust God. God Bless You – Nancy