A recent trip from home ended with quite a stir at the airport. The first clue for how the day would go came in a phone call stating our flight was delayed an hour. A second call noted the flight was delayed another hour. Upon arrival at the airport, I learned that the flight was cancelled due to a hydraulic leak and I was being routed to another flight. I felt good about it because the two guys behind me got routed to LAX before returning to Dallas whereas I was on a direct flight. Good for me, right? Well, 15 minutes into our flight it was obvious something wasn’t right when the pilot announced that our landing gear wasn’t working, we were going to fly around and burn off 10,000 pounds of fuel and then make an emergency landing. He went on to tell us that we would need to assume the crash position and we would see the firetrucks and emergency personnel lining the runway. Needless to say, the atmosphere on the airplane changed dramatically as an air of fear permeated the cabin.
After we landed without incident, we waited in the terminal for another plane to arrive to bring us home giving us plenty of time to breathe, relax and share some of our thoughts. I was struck by the number of times I heard something similar to “it really makes you think about things” and “I sure reconsidered my priorities.” Most seemed to agree with each other giving knowing nods or chiming in with similar comments. I tried to stay quiet until someone finally asked me directly how I felt about it and my response simply left blank stares.
Having the spent the past week thinking about some of the comments and talking to someone I know who was on the plane, I wonder how many of those thoughts while circling in the air and not knowing what would happen have created changes in those people’s lives. I wonder how many have changed their priorities, their habits, their thoughts, their relationship with God. I wonder because I spent many years knowing I was doing things that put my heart in danger, even my life at times, thinking I needed to straighten up, to get right with God and to begin living differently only to find myself doing the same things I had been doing because the bad stuff I feared didn’t come to fruition. I spent years knowing what I was doing was wrong but I was caught in the trap of the accuser, kept allowing myself to believe that I was a bad person who just did bad things and someone that God couldn’t really love, someone God wouldn’t embrace, someone God was disappointed in.
For me, the decision to make changes and the decision to begin living in submission to God didn’t come from the bad things that could happen to me. No, the decision came after something bad did happen that will alter the course of my life forever. I was humbled, knocked to my knees, when I realized that I had no control of my life and that my plans and dreams and desires would no longer be put ahead of God’s control, God’s plans, God’s dreams and God’s desires for my life.
James 4:7-10 says, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” [emphasis mine]
Having been humbled before God, I have learned to live in the peace of his mighty power and in the knowledge that he is in control. I don’t know the people in the airport who gave me the blank stares but I can’t help but wonder if many of them don’t know the peace I have living in the knowledge that God is in control. When asked how I felt during the hour we were flying around burning fuel I simply shared with them my simple prayer, “Lord, I pray that in whatever happens this day, you are glorified. In our safe return, Lord, I pray that you are glorified. If the end of this story isn’t a safe return, Lord, I pray that you are glorified. Lord, let your peace descend on all involved in this situation.” With that, I was at perfect peace with whatever was to come. If we landed safely, I knew the Lord still had a plan for me to live out and if we didn’t land safely, I knew the Lord would be calling me home. Either way, I knew God would show me his desire and I would go from there.
I pray that you know the perfect peace that comes from the Lord and that you live in that peace each day as your light shines to a dark world.
Grace and peace to you.
Jeff Jones
Decatur, Texas
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