Good Friday sense

It’s day five of flying for me, tonight will be night number six away from home. I’m spending the day in a Hampton Inn in Greenville, SC, where everything is green, or greening up in the early spring. Tonight I’ll fly from GSP to Charlotte, only about a twenty minute flight maximum, then deadhead back to DC for the night. I miss my wife and girls, and will be home tomorrow afternoon, for a week of vacation and four days extra scheduled off, away from the skies. So, two days before our Easter holiday, it’s a good Friday, in fact it is THE Good Friday, and I’ll be writing about that subject in a paragraph or two.

The first couple of days of this trip we endured a lot of turbulence in the clouds, immersed and enveloped ‘inside the lampshade‘, in white and gray. Climbing and descending to find a smoother altitude for our ‘peeps’ didn’t help much, so we usually just slowed down the plane and endured it. My Co-Pilots and I had to fight gusty crosswinds on takeoff and landing. We airline pilots generally like the challenge of a crosswind, passengers generally don’t. Not seeing the blue sky or sun for entire flights is strange at times. It still intrigues me to navigate using only our instruments on the flight display screens in front of us, then pop out of ragged clouds and mist with the runway right in front of us, canted at an angle, due to our ‘crab angle’ into the wind.

On the second day we were flying north over western New York, destination Toronto, Ontario, Canada, when we seemed to reach the end of the endless clouds. It started clearing over Buffalo, New York, as center had us descend to 10,000 feet. I got out my camera because I knew Niagara Falls was coming up, and it looked as if we would get a chance to photograph it. This is from two miles above the ground with a zoomed lens, but it’s still very impressive.

I think it’s only fitting that I quote Jesus’ from John 7:37 (ESV) here: “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Wow, what a river of living water, indeed. I will see it up close in person, someday.

Below is a picture of the river and lakes of the Niagara Falls region, this was taken while we were headed south, from Toronto back to Philadelphia. In the foreground is Lake Ontario, in the background is Lake Erie. That little puff of white is the mist rising from the Canadian, Horseshoe falls side. The river is the Niagara river, and it flows from south to north, background to foreground, from Lake Erie towards Lake Ontario. Unless you’re geography limited, like I was about this area until a few years ago, it doesn’t make sense without an explanation. Here's a google map of the same area.  It’s still tricky for me to make sense of it, of a river that flows from south to north, and not only that but a humongous waterfall over seemingly flat country. But with a little knowledge and explanation, it does make sense. Rivers all over the earth flow from a higher elevation to a lower elevation.

It can be hard to make sense of Jesus’ sacrifice of his life on the cross too. With a little knowledge and explanation it begins to make sense too. God loves you! God loves us, every one of us, and He wants to have relationship with us, now and for eternity. Our sin (which is turning away from God by our thoughts, words, actions, and deeds) separates us from God, because God is Holy and perfect, and cannot and will not tolerate sin in his presence. As a matter of fact, God will destroy whatever is sinful in his pure presence. But God made a way, from the beginning, to ‘fix’ our imperfectedness and restore our relationship with him. Jesus. He said in John 16:13 “there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

Many skeptics of Christianity accept that a man named Jesus Christ of Nazareth was crucified on a cross, but they draw the line there. But without Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, his crucifixion doesn’t make sense at all. The resurrection is absolutely essential to Christianity. But don’t just take my word for it, feel free to check out these three links, by others much smarter than me about the subject: No Christianity with the Resurrection, Christianity is Resurrection, and Resurrection essential to Christianity.

Without Jesus rising from the dead:

-His death on the cross was in vain, and unable to defeat sin; in other words the pain and suffering of crucifixion, ‘bearing the guilt for the sins of many’, was unable to overcome death.


-He was just a man, and not God.


-He was a liar, and so were his disciples. All the times in four gospels where Jesus promised that ‘whosoever believes in me shall not die, but have everlasting life’ make him and the gospel writers out to be liars.


-God has permitted all true Christians out to be liars as well. I can’t, don’t, and won’t believe that the nature of God is like that, the Bible says otherwise in plenty of places.

The proof that Jesus’ perfect sacrifice was sufficient enough to make us sinners right with God (“by grace through faith” - Ephesians 2:8) is in the fact of his resurrection itself, and gives all believers confidence that at some point after we die in this life we will have resurrected bodies and eternal life, just as our Savior promised multiple times in the gospels, and as the New Testament authors espoused on.

Perhaps the most memorable New Testament passage regarding the essentialness of the doctrine of the resurrection was by the apostle Paul, in I Corinthians 15:12-19 (Amplified): "12But now if Christ (the Messiah) is preached as raised from the dead, how is it that some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?  13But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not risen; 14And if Christ has not risen, then our preaching is in vain [it amounts to nothing] and your faith is devoid of truth and is fruitless (without effect, empty, imaginary, and unfounded).  15We are even discovered to be misrepresenting God, for we testified of Him that He raised Christ, Whom He did not raise in case it is true that the dead are not raised.  16For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised; 17And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is mere delusion [futile, fruitless], and you are still in your sins [under the control and penalty of sin]; 18And further, those who have died in [spiritual fellowship and union with] Christ have perished (are lost)! 19If we who are [abiding] in Christ have hope only in this life and that is all, then we are of all people most miserable and to be pitied."
 
Wow, what a statement and declaration of truth by Paul.  If we have no resurrection from the dead then Jesus doesn't either, and we are to be pitied by others, and we are, because they don't believe it (the resurrection).  But we brothers and sisters in Christ know otherwise, for we have experienced the prescence of Christ in our lives, and the peace, joy, fellowship, love, and purpose that comes along with it. 
 
Hallelujah, for He is risen!  He is risen indeed!

Happy Easter everyone, whether you observe and believe the resurrection of our Lord or not.  Thanks for reading my blog.

Hope's not giving up

(Originally written on September 1st, 2009)

Yesterday, the second day of my current three day trip, we had this beautiful dawn scene from the hotel van on the way to the airport. The promising, glorious light, framed by the dark and cold concrete, seemed to give me hope for a beautiful day. And we did have a nice, easy, and beautiful day of flying, from Rochester to Boston Mass to Indianapolis, Indiana, better known as 'Indy' or 'the Brickyard'.

The citrus toned sunrise gave way to a yellow sky and dark silhouetted wilderness and terrain on the way to very historic Boston. The air-port (get it?) is right next to the ocean bay there in Boston, and a very picturesque scene it is. I flew an enjoyable visual approach to runway 22L (towards the southwest), with the saltwater on my left and downtown Boston in front of us, slightly to our right. Dealing with a light crosswind from the right made me pay attention to what I was doing.

Inside the terminal I grabbed some breakfast and had time to read, think, and pray a bit. The mood was bright and friendly, and I noticed Boston business travelers with coffee and plans for the day. The flight to Indy (nonstop, surprisingly) had only 17 peeps, business fliers mostly.

While taxiing out on Boston's complex taxiways I snuck a peek and marveled at a huge, tall cruise ship docking at the nearby pier, it must have been eight stories up from the deck, with a sky bridge for the passengers too. After a takeoff in smooth air I activated the autopilot at 600 feet to enjoy the views during the climbout over the denizens and citizenry of 'Baasten'. They were no doubt still mourning and remembering Teddy Kennedy, who as we all know, perhaps too much so from cable news, recently passed on.

I supposed that many below were considering who will replace 'TK' and try to honor and carry on his legacy, over frank Boston talk and coffee (Boston 'coffee talk', if you will). If you disagree with Ted Kennedy's politics or life actions, so be it, but the man cared deeply about the common American, a good quality in any person regardless. Disclaimer over; it's my impression that Bostonians aren't afraid to say what's on their minds, aren't timid in expressing themselves, aren't hesitant to share their hopes and dreams for the future. Hope was becoming a theme for the morning in my emotions and my spirit.

Headed westbound later, at 30,000 feet and 515 MPH, we were running from the sun behind our backs, and appreciating the scene in the sky. Over central Pennsylvania, somewhere near Phillipsburg, we started picking up an ELT (Emergency Locator Transmitter) siren loudly emitting on the emergency frequency (121.5 Mhz). My First Officer told New York Center, and the friendly voice responded "yea they had a little accident yesterday". Looking down it was all Appalachian ridges and mountains, relatively tall ones, seen between scattered cumulus in a loose formation below us. Together, my FO and I wondered what happened, and HOPED that they were OK, whatever did happen. When an ELT keeping going off, it means the ELT hasn't been turned off yet, for whatever reason. Survivors of accidents keep the ELT on many times so that rescuers can easily find the wreckage. The other possibility was that rescuers hadn’t reached the wreckage yet, and the survivors, well, there were none. We didn't ask if they were OK, I would have rather not known, would rather be confident in the HOPE that they were OK.



The loose formation of the scattered line of cumulus clouds arrayed in a long, curving path to the horizon below, produced by the properties of the airmass in the present weather; there is an order to them, I feel. It communicates an order, and is a sign in the sky that at this present moment leads somewhere, leads me in a spiritual urgency to realize that all humanity needs to, and does have an ultimate, highest hope in something or someone.

We all have a highest hope, one which we invest in more than any other for our future happiness and satisfaction in life, and in death. This is the realm of StarWars, Princess Leia type hope. Who can forget when she, in her sparkling white gown and huge headphone brunette hairdo, kneels in front of R2D2, and pleads “Obi-wan Kenobi, you are my only hope”, and thus records a hologram message she hopes will be delivered to him.

My highest hope is in Jesus Christ; you certainly know this by now if you’ve been following this blog. I could have my ‘only’ hope invested in an airline pilot career, in perusing wealth and material things, in a government or belief system, in a politician or President, in my spouse, in my children, in a hobby, in mankind to achieve a united world peace and order (secular Humanism), or any number of other things. But by experience and desire (that I believe the Holy Spirit has put in my heart), Jesus Christ is my Hope with a capital H. The Apostle Paul calls Jesus our hope in I Timothy 1:1.

Before expanding on this, I feel there are a couple interesting things about hope I'd like to express.

"Hope's not giving up, hope's not giving up; in the cold, dark night, hope's not giving, not giving up." A line in this song by Christian band Remedy Drive readily shows that the nature of hope is that it doesn't give up until proven otherwise. Clink the link to hear it.

Hope for it's own sake of hope amounts to vanity. Example: it's foolish to hope that it won't rain when the forecast is a 100% chance for it to do so. It's much better to invest hope in something tangible: an idea, an attitude, a philosophy, a belief system, a government, a religion, a God, a person, (a person who is God?).

What encompasses the hope I have in the hope that is Jesus Christ? I'll let John Piper explain it much better, from I Peter 1:3-13, and ‘The Power of Hope’, a 1981 Easter Sunday sermon on his blog, Desiring God.

My Hope, Jesus, gives me an ultimate purpose, meaning, and satisfaction, for this life and after this life. Sometimes, a lot of of the time if I'm honest, I don't know exactly what that purpose and meaning is, but I think it has something to do with the presence of my Holy Savior being lived out in me. The Holy Spirit gives me the power to permit that to happen. The trick is in doing it consistently and honestly, and for that, I have hope that in God's grace and mercy I will continue on that path.

Let me share one last scripture, and I'll go for now. From Hebrews 11:1: Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. We can all have hope invested in something or someone, but invested in the incredible person of Jesus Christ we can have a living, loving faith. That is a hope that's not giving up.