Be an All-Weather Pilot
A friend was recently relating his exploits as a pilot. His most memorable flight was an encounter with a thunderstorm over Lake Erie. Another was an attempt to fly over a cloud covered mountain range. “On that one,” he said, “I was forced to find a nearby landing strip until the clouds lifted.”
“Why didn’t you just fly into the clouds or try and get above them?” I asked.
He laughed. “I’m what you call a fair weather pilot. I don’t have a rating to fly by instruments. I have to be able to see the ground at all times.”
CONSIDER how easy it is to live our lives as “Fair Weather Pilots.” There, between us and soaring high and free in God’s radiant sunlight, are the clouds: the fears, inhibitions, problems and concerns of life. Sometimes when these clouds roll in we are forced to hover beneath them, hugging the ground. Often they ground us. Life might be safe and secure down on the ground. But certainly not full and free as God intended for it to be.
A world to see, journeys to make, experiences to have, all this and more He has created for us to behold, like the Nomad Abraham, called from his home of Ur to travel by faith into unknown lands, a journey that would eventually prepare the way for the coming of Jesus. All this would not have been possible if Abraham was only rated a “Fair Weather Pilot.” Abraham was, indeed, an “All Weather Pilot.”
CONSIDER, spiritually how does one get such a rating? How does one manage to become such a free and high-flying person of faith such as Abraham? To paraphrase the title of an old movie, it is only with “God as Our Co-pilot.” There’s no such creature as a “solo pilot.” The journey of faith is only achieved by faithful journeying with God. The fears, inhibitions, concerns of life can only successfully be flown through and over with Him by our sides. He is our instructor; He is our strength; He is the wind beneath our wings which enables us to soar high above the clouds below.
Rev. Wendell Mettey
Revised 10/25/2013
