Travels

I am not a big fan of airplanes. I have been on two trips in my life which have required that I fly to get there, in both cases, something has gone wrong. The first trip I took was to Texas and at first, everything seemed to be going well. I found a seat (a window seat, in fact), I had some peanuts and some Pepsi and I was starting to think that my first airplane ride was going to go off without a hitch. That was until it came time to land...talk about rough landing. The whole time we were coming in for landing, the plane was swaying back and forth and then one back landing gear touched down (now I’m pretty sure that if just one landing gear hit the runway, then we were landing crooked) and then we went back up, and then we touched down again. This being my first flight, the whole time I had visions of a wing scraping the ground and ripping off the airplane. Being in a window seat did not help this image. From what I've seen of landings on TV and movies both back landing gears are supposed to hit the runway first and then the nose of the plane will slowly touch down. On this plane, I think the nose gear touched down before the back right landing gear, making a very rough and scary landing. Needless to say, I was glad to get off of that plane.

My second trip, to Oregon, had an excellent landing, but the takeoff wasn't so smooth. We were headed down the runway for takeoff, picking up speed when all of a sudden the plane slows down and pulls off to the side of the runway. The pilot comes on the intercom explaining that some warning lights had turned on in the cockpit and he was going to have the plane checked by some mechanics. About 15 minutes went by and the pilot came over the intercom once again to say, "we found the problem, we're going to take off now." He did NOT say that the problem had been fixed and everything was going to be fine. All he said was that the problem had been found and we would be taking off. This did not reassure me. Luckily, the flight went well.

Airplanes give me an uneasy feeling because I am not in control of the things that can happen on them.

I like to drive. I would not like it if YOU drove. I've been in a car barreling 100mph down the freeway while I was not in the driver's seat...I can think of better, less catastrophic times I've had. I do not like it when others drive me anywhere for the same reason I do not like to fly in airplanes...I am not in control of the situation. There is no one I trust more than myself. I feel much safer knowing that I have a handle on the things that can affect me in life. There is a certain comfort that comes from having things under control.

Is this what God wants of me? Does He want me to have everything in my life under my control? Perhaps even more importantly...have I left room in my controlled environment for God to work? If I could do it all by myself, and have everything go smoothly, would I need a savior? For some reason, no matter how hard I try, even when I am in control of things, everything does not go the way I planned it. Things I plan with good intention somehow turn out wrong, and I must realize that I need a savior. A savior who will come in and take control for me, who will drive my cars, and fly my airplanes in life, better than I ever could. Jesus is the savior who does this, but what I have to do is to make room for him to work. I have to get over my control freak syndrome and let him start driving.