View from the Waiting Room - Part V

I'm thankful that in this waiting period I've had no pain or limitation of ability to work or do whatever. I'm writing this in the Vancouver airport as I wait for my flight to Edmonton for meetings over the weekend. And then next week I will spend some days at a District Conference of our churches in Manitoba representing PAOC missions and ERDO.

As a pastor/teacher one truth you try to communicate often is that of “faith”. One of the most effective ways to teach is to use analogies – real-life experiences of your students (children, congregations or whoever) to convey something you want them to understand. Jesus did it with parables. Using “object lessons” has been a common teaching strategy in school classrooms.

For me, taking an airplane flight has been one of the most powerful illustrations of faith.
I’ve taken hundreds of them. It’s such a common experience I hardly think about it anymore. But when I do I’m always struck by the huge leap of faith that is involved in boarding an airplane. The flight attendants and staff are trained to communicate an air of confidence. Two important looking people disappear through the little door at the front and you wait for the soothing voice (male or female) saying “Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. My name is …. Welcome aboard.” And then, on a good day, follows the usual routines of take off, flying and landing.

When you think of it, an airplane flight is a powerful lesson in faith. It’s a one hundred percent commitment of your life into the hands of a machine and the people who fly it. There are dozens of trust issues involved in following the simple instruction: “sit back, relax and enjoy the flight.” You have relinquished all control into the hands of others.

Of course, I’m thinking of the upcoming surgery experience these days. It, too, is a comparable step of faith and commitment. When the anesthetic kicks in you are totally in the hands of others. You trust their skill and experience to bring you through to the other side of disease to health and healing.

We know that aviation accidents happen. We know that even the best doctors are human and fallible. They make mistakes. But over and above all, Christians have faith in a never-failing God who never makes mistakes. He has all knowledge and power. Most of all, His love never fails. The Psalmist repeats it over and over: “His love endures forever”.

Whether in an airplane or in the operating room, we have this confidence: “underneath are the everlasting arms.”
KEN