"I Can’t Fly This Plane!"

Many of you will remember USAir Flight 427 that crashed outside of Pittsburgh, PA on September 8, 1994, killing everyone on board. Seminary professor Steve Brown does. He flew into Pittsburgh one week later on a USAir flight out of Toronto. He also remembers encountering some of the most horrible turbulence he’d ever experience on that particular flight. He though he was going to die; “In fact, I was sure of it,” he says. He continues, “Now that kind of experience has a tendency to make one’s prayers intense. The irritating part about my praying on that occasion was the snores of the sleeping woman next to me. When we finally landed safely, she woke up and was stretching. I said to her, ‘Lady, we almost died and you were sleeping. It seems to me that one ought to be awake for one’s death.’ She laughed, and said, ‘Mister, I can’t fly this plane!’” In other words, why worry if the plane is going to crash, being awake for the crash isn’t going to prevent it.

We (or at least I) can learn a lot from this lady. Because it seems to me that much of what we (again, at least I) worry about is far outside of the realm of our control. And if we can’t fly the plane, then why do we bother trying? After all worry is really nothing more than our misguided attempt to fly planes that we can’t fly. I recently made the decision that I am not going to worry about the things that are outside of my control. Which is as they say, easier said than done. So far it seems that the only thing that I have successfully removed from my worry list is the win/loss record of the O’s (it’s much, much easier when your expectations aren’t too high.) Still, I aspire to live a worry free life because I have come to see my worrying as an indicator of my lack of trust in God and His goodness. When Jesus says, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own,” (Matthew 6:34) He’s saying, “Trust me today.” And trust always pleases God. So let me encourage you to pursue a worry free life with me. The next time we find ourselves coming down with a case of the worries, it might be healthy for us to whisper out or maybe even shout out a prayer to God making the following declaration: “HELP Lord…I can’t fly this plane!” Then I think we should go and take a nap.

Blessings,
PB