Last year on an icy morning here in Omaha, a large passenger plane landed and slid completely off the runway out of control. My husband’s plane was the next one to take off, and he saw everything first hand out of his small oval window. His captain would be in control of how well his own flight handled the icy departure ahead.
When you are flying, you are at the mercy of the pilot… the one who is in control of the plane and all of the passengers on it. It’s another thing to be a passenger. To be in control of so little, to have no control over the path to your destination. Maybe that’s why some people refuse to fly. They don’t trust letting go of their lives into the hands of the one that is.
My cousin is a pilot for Southwest Airlines, and every once in a while he will catch a ride home on a plane that we also happened to be on. He gets to be a passenger just like the rest of us excited to see our people back home.
On one trip, however, from Arizona back to Omaha he was our pilot. An interesting feeling captured me as we were in the air somewhere over New Mexico; it was a sense of peace. I knew the one who was in control of the plane. Who was in control of my life! And knowing the one in control made a huge difference in how I felt about the flight, the course of the trip, and getting to our destination. The flight no longer seemed scary, dangerous, or unpredictable because I knew the one guiding it. I knew his qualities and skills, and I knew he cared about my family and me.
Knowing the one in control made things okay. There was still turbulence on the flight. He had to tell his passengers to put their seatbelts on because it was going to be bumpy. On this flight though, to me, it didn’t matter because he had my best interest in mind, and I knew it.
We like to think that we are in control of our lives, don’t we? And then we hit a bump, we throw on our seatbelts, and we silently pray that we get through it and land okay. In these times, it is SO GOOD to know the one who is truly in control. And sweet friends out there… it’s not you.
We have a God who is good. He gets to be in the one who is in control, and when you know Him, life looks a lot different when the bumps hit. When you know the God who loves you and created you, the things that might cause our hearts so much anxiety become things we know are being taken care of by the One in charge. When life is hard and confusing, and we realize that we are not in command of our situations, we can rest easier knowing there is a God who is entirely in control, fully loving and never rattled or overwhelmed. He always has your best interest in mind, and he is always trustworthy.
Knowing the one in charge is life-changing. Knowing God allows you to handle the road ahead, even the bumpy parts. Knowing Him allows you to live freely, without being afraid and living with eyes wide open waiting to see what lies ahead with confidence and not fear. Friends, knowing Him changes everything. HLLF –
