Spoilers

“Oh, they won’t wait anymore.  We’re up for sale, you know.  Have to get that on time performance to look good.  The only way they will hold this flight is if mainline calls and tells them to.”  I was greeting the friendly pilots of the red, white, and blue regional jet I was boarding for my flight from Chicago to my home, and had just told them the CSA (Gate Agent) had mentioned to me that they had seven passengers who had just landed on a mainline flight, who would probably be late for this flight.  Even though it was the last flight of the night to my commuting city home, these two professionals (and I mean that in every sense of the word) didn’t even think it worth their while to request, tell, order, or demand to the agent and/or operations that the flight be held for these passengers customers.  Performance wins too frequently these days, and humans end up losing.  Performance over customer service.  Performance over safety).  Performance over sticking your neck out over the risk of getting a ‘demerit’ or worse. 

I kindly let their ambivalence slide and answered their questions about how my regional airline was doing, thanked them for the ride, and found my seat.

The door was shut and jetway disconnected at 9:11 PM.  We pushed back five minutes earlier than scheduled departure time at 9:15 PM, while I visualized these seven passengers running and showing up at the gate at 9:17 PM, pleading that the agent re-open the flight and board them on the plane.  No chance.  This scenario has probably occurred on my watch, when I’m tired at the end of the day, and want to get to the overnight.  I try to guard against it and leave no one behind; I try to show how I care.  But I won’t say it has never happened.  When this might occur, it is usually the gate agent’s last flight of the night and they want to go home. 

Why don’t we care like we used to in the airlines?  We care more about staying out of trouble and not getting a late departure than we do about our customers.  It starts from the top down, and if an employee fears being late more than stranding passengers, unhappy passengers lose.  The airlines say they care as much about customer service as they do about safety, on time performance, and ‘economic efficiency’ (fancy phrase for cheaper), but in my experience these priorities are unbalanced.

I’ve been on two airlines who hold flights for late passengers, however, and I will name names: #Southwest (they do a great, consistent job of this) and #United, believe it or not (the last flight of the night). 

What a day I had, five legs after a 6:30 AM van.  I tried to ‘drop’ the last two flights, a Pittsburgh round trip, but crew scheduling denied it, due to ‘lack of reserve coverage’.  We woke up in humid, stale, stinky still air in Florence, South Carolina (sorry Florence), flew up to Charlotte, over to ‘Rocket-Town’ - Huntsville, Alabama.  Loading up the peeps a United Captain came to the cockpit to meet us and ask for ride back to Washington.  Lo and behold, it was Alan Cockrell, one of the best airline bloggers and writers, in my opinion.  It was nice to meet him, and you should read his blog.  He should write a book on airline flying.

In DC we then had a three hour fifteen minute break until the Pittsburgh round trip.  If my drop request had been granted I would’ve been on a 2:30 PM flight home on the first leg of my commute. 

After my FO tried to encourage me that I could still make it home later, I replied that I’d already used up my optimism on my rejected drop request.  At the time, we had just seen the departure monitor show that our plane for the Pittsburgh flight would be late.  It was ‘posting’ as a 4:22 PM departure instead of 4:07 PM. 

A nice lunch at the new Qdoba should’ve cheered me up, but the lack of tortilla strips in my Mexican gumbo left me a little riled (no apology and no offer of chips in their place – this is a little like McDonald’s running out of French fries).  This was the first instance of someone not caring this day.

I feared that our plane would become more delayed, not knowing why it was running late.  I could’ve called dispatch to find out, but I was juggling my phone with many business emails (see logbooksolutions.com) today.

Fortunately, post Qdoba our jet looked like it would arrive at about 4:15 PM.  We would still go out later than 4:22 PM to Pittsburgh but I had a fighting chance of making either the 7:20 or 7:50 PM flight to Chicago. 

Fast forward to the visual approach my fine First Officer was flying into Pittsburgh.  He was ‘freestyling’ (hand flying with flight director off) a visual approach from a semi-high position (all strictly within our flight limitations), and on base leg had extended the flight spoilers.  On approach we noted that we had indications that the spoilerons and outboard ground spoilers had minor ‘faults’ indicated with them.  One or more of these spoilers had one of two actuators that didn’t seem to be working properly.  It didn’t mean the spoilers wouldn’t work, just that they had lost some redundancy.  On touchdown I verified that all the spoilers (panels on the wing which pop up and disturb the lift the wing produces) actuated properly.

After shutdown at the gate, my good First Officer asserted in a professional manner that we should give maintenance a call about the spoilers, and write the messages up in the aircraft logbook.  Because we had received the messages in flight, if we had called maintenance it would require a visit from an on-call mechanic.  This I readily admit I did not want to do.  I could visualize us waiting to twenty or thirty minutes for the mechanic to arrive, twenty or thirty precious minutes I needed to catch my DC to Chicago flight. 

In the end I called.  I cared more about doing the right thing than about getting home; I do admit I had mixed motives, but still.  On my non-company cellphone I talked to maintenance, wrote the two messages up, and waited for the on call mechanic to arrive.  It really varies from airport to airport how long it takes maintenance to get there.  But before I had much time to fret, he was in the jetway.  He took care of the writeup and circuit breaker reset in record time. 

We had already loaded up, and after closing and pushing back I had confidence again that I would make the last flight out of DC this night.  Thirty minutes later, after a fast climb to the east, ATC announced holding instructions to us.  “Holding?  What for?”  I thought screamed (“traffic volume” the ATC controller included with our clearance), while my FO wrote the clearance down, programmed it in the FMS, and I observed and confirmed it.

My FO later expressed a little admiration for me not ‘sailor talking’, saying that he would’ve been throwing the four letter words if he’d been in my position.  This exemplifies the stress pilot commuters endure, trying to get home and to work, and it adds to an already sleep deprived high workload.  Maybe someday I’ll have an easier commute (one leg instead of two) or even drive to my domicile.  But for now I’m still making the best of it.

I did make the flight to Chicago, by the way, where they closed my flight home early to the seven “mis-connects”.  We were released from the hold ten minutes early, at 6:50 PM.  The flight to Chicago was to depart at 7:50 PM.  I set the parking brake of our thinly painted, rivet exposed, well used CRJ at about 7:15, and hustled two concourses over as fast as I could briskly walk. 

We who transport people across the sky from one place to another should care more (myself included).  Too many pressures from management and bean counters “spoil” what comes naturally to many of us: to show how we care about customers by serving them to the best of our ability while performing our duties professionally and efficiently.  And in this arena we deliver something of bedrock importance to them : sustainment of their dignity as fellow humans.  When a customer is dissed, everything gets degraded: they do, our culture does and society does too. 

In earth’s short human history, one person lived who showed that he cared more than any other, and still does.  Even though He was actually a King, He served others as a servant, taught marvelous truths, healed many, had many followers, and He promised that by following him, you could enter the kingdom of God.  He cared so much that he voluntarily gave up his life on a cross of crucifixion, to pay for the penalty of my sin, and of your sin.  By putting your faith in Him as your Savior, you receive the promise He gave from John 3:16: “that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”  By exercising faith in Him and his “substitionary atonement”, we are made clean and become acceptable to God.  You should conclude then, whoever this person is who died in all of humanity’s place, he must be very special, and very Holy.

And you would be right.  His name, Jesus Christ, of course, you’ve heard of him probably.    But in this post-modern, now post-Christian world (at least part of it is), others disagree.  They believe in a universal spirituality, and they don’t believe in the concept of sin as the bible teaches.  They don’t believe that their sin separates them from God, and if they believe in a personal God, they likely believe that God’s grace is available to all. 

Those beliefs lead them to not think of Jesus as the bible teaches and claims he is.  This is a grave error, and is the same as “man making God in his own image” instead of viewing Jesus through the lens of “God making man in his own image” as the bible states. 

God’s grace is available to all, but the one pre-condition to being “under grace” is believing and receiving Jesus as your Savior.  If you don’t claim Jesus as your personal Savior, you are still “under the law”.  Liberal theology and ‘pickers and choosers’ of the Bible tend to discount any claim of exclusivity that Jesus had as unworthy additions by newly zealous Christian converts in the first century.  But in the Gospel of John, Chapter 14, verse 6, Jesus is quoted in no uncertain terms as stating this to his disciples "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  A Methodist Pastor puts this passage in better perspective.  I personally feel that there are many spiritual paths to come to Jesus, and that Jesus is the best and truest way to God.

God showed how he cares about us, about you and about me, by sending his son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins.  Jesus never sinned, so that is one reason that he had the ability to serve as a sacrifice for the sins of many.  Another set of reasons are the many, many Old Testament prophecies He fulfilled, involving his lineage, his life, actions, and death.  His work of Salvation for us is a marvelous thing, an amazing gift available to all who trust in Him.  Taking a cue from that cute Mexican beer commercial, Jesus is the real “most interesting man in the world”.  “Stay thirsty, my friends.”  Let me ask you, though, are you, yourself spiritually thirsty enough to want to know God, the God that personally cares enough for you to die for you? 

I’m not trying to scare anyone or to sell ‘fire insurance’.  But this is the basics of orthodox Christianity.  I see universal spiritualism creeping into our society and culture more and more, and sold out Christians (myself included) aren’t speaking up enough for Jesus, aren’t pointing toward the person He is and the light He shines, aren’t saying hey, wait a minute, that’s not how God is.

Don’t let the ideas of Universalism spoil your opportunity to go down God’s jetway.  God cares about you, reader, enough to hold the flight for you, as long as you have breath left on this earth in this life.  God will meet you where you’re at, when you’re ready to take a step of faith and put your trust in Jesus as your savior.  You don’t have to board the plane in clean clothes either, come as you are, straight from the mud pit, if that’s where you’ve been. 

"Praise the Father, Praise the Son, Praise the Spirit, three in one"!

God bless you, and thanks for reading my blog.

New Plan, New Year

Pilots are known for having 'new plans', "just in case", in the interest of safety.  The FAA and the airlines require it, and the philosophy of safe flying dictates it.  For example, an alternate airport for landing is required in certain forecast weather conditions (if the actual weather at the destination goes below approach minimums you might proceed to your alternate), and a specified fuel reserve at the destination is always required (if airborne delays occur or if fuel burn is higher than planned).  In case of engine failure enroute, a diversion airport is a subject frequently on the mind of pilots, especially single engine airplane pilots.  When we fly an instrument approach there is always a missed approach procedure associated with it which we plan on flying, if we don't have the runway in sight at the end of that approach.  Backup plans, and backup plans to the backup plans, are important to aviation safety.  And 'new plans' aren't just part of what's required, it's one ever present part of a professional (or professionally minded) pilot's thought processes.  Airline pilots even have 'new plans' for engine failure on takeoff roll and right at takeoff. 

In the midst of the Christmas season, full of promise and surprise, we got a surprise of our own, which required a new plan.  On a visual approach into Washington National airport, we were given some indications this was about to happen, and we were prepared, somewhat.  But in what transpired after that, we (at least I did) experienced for a moment a feeling of being in the wrong place, at the wrong time.  The phrase "airline flying is hours and hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror" comes to mind.  Actually I don't think they were referring to short haul, east coast USA flying, but the quote still fits somewhat.  

It was a week before Christmas, and we were finishing our four day trip.  After landing in DC we were scheduled to fly to Norfolk, Virginia, and back, then go home.  On the way in from Detroit, the first flight of our day, I was flying a "Mount Vernon visual approach" up the Potomac river to runway 01. Washington National airport had a clear runway (no snow or ice on it) but braking action reports (good-fair for most of the runway but poor at the end).  This was odd, but there had been snow and ice recently on the airport.  Lately the asphalt runway there seemed to have a sheen on it, I guess leftover from deice applications to the runway.  More so, Washington Regan National is built on landfill right next tot the Potomac river, so it can be surmised that moisture from the ground near the river easily is drawn out to the runway surface.

A picture of Washington Reagan National airport from southwest of the airport looking to the northeast.  The green areas north of the Potomac river and bridges are the National mall, where the national monuments and prohibited airspace area P-56 are.

We turned final up the river to the north, and I commanded flaps and gear down, and
slowed our plane down to approach speed, about 140 knots.  Approach control had had us at 160 knots until five miles out, where my good First Officer contacted the control tower.  DCA tower said to slow immediately to final approach speed (which we were already at), and had an Embraer E-170 jet "line up and wait" (the new phraseology for "taxi into position and hold").  

We were waiting for clearance to land now on runway 01, the long runway at DC aligned towards the north, beyond which is the Jefferson, Lincoln, and Washington Memorials, the National Mall, the White House, and the airspace designated as P-56 which encompassed them all.  It is simply the most important prohibited airspace in the nation, and we are to avoid penetrating it at all costs.  For a map of it, click on the "Mount Vernon visual approach" link above.  Our jet was about two and a half miles and one minute away from the runway, and my good FO and I had the same thoughts: we might be going around soon. 

Shortly after the jet in front of the E-170 took off and made the left turn up the Potomac river to the northwest to avoid the previously mentioned P-56 airspace, the control tower cleared the E-170 for takeoff.  We waited, the control tower waited, and then we waited some more.  The jet was stalling on the runway, not moving, I said out loud they probably had gotten deiced and were doing an engine clearing procedure before they released their brakes and started accelerating down the runway for takeoff.  We have a procedure for this as well, for our jet it takes twenty seconds at 'N1 60% engine RPM' before we can release brakes.  It is to clear out any residual deice fluid that might have made its way into the engines during the deicing process. 

Finally the black (really a dark navy blue colored fuselage) jet started moving.  It was going to be close.  We couldn't go any slower and the tower had not asked us to do s-turns to increase the spacing between this departing jet and ours, landing behind them on the same runway.  The autopilot was off, had been off, and I was concentrating on maintaining alignment with the runway, the proper glidepath on the glideslope, and our target airspeed.  What concentration I had left I was using to scan up the runway at the now fast accelerating jet in front of us.  From the beginning of this episode, I thought they would have enough clearance from us, many times when its close the jet in front of you breaks ground when you're 100-300 feet above the ground and you continue to a landing, but this time we heard the "100" callout from the radio altimeter, and I focused completely on landing the plane.

But this time I wouldn't have a chance.  Just at that moment the control tower commanded "Express 3784, go around".  The new plan was given.  My FO replied to the tower, "go-around, Express 3784.  As I pushed the GA (go-around) button on the side of the engine throttle lever handles, pulled back on the control column to raise the nose to match the pitch attitude commanded by the flight director on the attitude display (the PFD), and pushed the thrust levers forward to the appropriate position for takeoff thrust, all simultaneously and by rote training and reflex built in, I wondered one thing: which way are we going to go? 

I let this thought distract me too much, I admit.  But I'd never been in this situation before, at Washington Reagan National Airport, with the infamous P-56 right in front of us two miles ahead, and another jet taking off right below us.  It was so close that just before I started the turn (which I'll get to in a moment) I could see its nose pitching skyward from the ground below us as our glareshield (dashboard) blocked our view of him.

(Another view of the the White House and the Washington and Jefferson Memorials, with Washington National airport on the other side of the river beyond.  This view is looking south.)

If we'd had a few more hundred feet of clearance, we would've landed, but it was a good decision by the control tower.  With the braking action as it was, if that jet in front of us had aborted takeoff while we were landing, it would've made a bad situation.

As I was pitching the plane up and looking for the one below us, "Go-around, flaps 8" was said, and my good FO retracted the flaps.  Actually, she is the one that said it, while I was engrossed with the traffic conflict blossoming right in front of us and wondering what would happen next.  You see, the published missed approach procedure at DCA from runway 1 is to basically turn left to the northwest while climbing out and avoiding P-56.  Logically, we couldn't turn to the northwest because that's where the other jet was going, and we couldn't go straight ahead because we'd penetrate P-56 and cause a bunch of bad paperwork, in the least.

I repeated the callout I was supposed to have made in the first place, "go-around, flaps 8", and heard the tower say, for the second time but for the first time for my brain, "start your right turn now to heading zero-nine-zero (090 degrees), climb and maintain two thousand".  A new plan for the new plan had been given.  I smoothly but quickly rolled in a turn towards the right, while answering my FO's callout "positive rate" with "gear up, speed mode".  She had already selected the heading bug to 090 heading and selected heading mode on the flight guidance panel.  I hoped that our turn radius would keep us out of P-56.  We had had a slight tailwind on final approach, but by the time I rolled us wings level headed towards the east (090 degrees), I could see the US Capitol building off my left shoulder, at least one mile away, indicating that we were clear of P-56.

But there wasn't time to revel in our safety or wag fingers (at myself) at missed callouts, we were now above 'acceleration altitude' and needed to 'clean up and speed up', perform checklists, talk to approach control on the radio, and brief the passengers on what just happened.  It all happens pretty fast when both engines are turning and we do it only a handful of times a year, but its what we are trained to do and expected to do well; usually its an intense but routine experience.  And actually, my job was just to fly the plane, the autopilot was on again soon, and my good FO was getting everything done in short order.  She was irritated because approach control kept asking the reason for the go around (as if it was our fault perhaps?), and they could tell she was irritated with her response.  We had a normal landing the second try, with the tower leaving plenty of room for the jet in front of us to break ground.

After the engines were shut down at our parking spot, I apologized to my FO for missing that callout, and thanked her for covering me.  I had let complacency sneak up on me; as I said had never been in this situation before, but its not the best excuse.  I had talked about what would happen in the situation with other FO's on previous occasions, I believe this situation is commonly talked about by flight crews who frequent DCA and ponder the 'what ifs'.  But for some reason I didn't think we would really, really go around, and consequently I wasn't as mentally prepared for it as I should've been.  If I had been completely prepared for it, I would have briefed that we should expect to have a right turn on the go-around due to P-56 being in our way straight ahead and the other aircraft being in our way on the standard missed approach procedure up the river to the left. 

"Complacency kills" is a much used phrase in military aviation, but its application in civilian use is very much warranted.  Many jet accidents have incurred loss of life with complacency being declared as contributing factors by accident investigators.  I know that I'll be making this possible go-around briefing when traffic is trying to takeoff in front of us when I land in DC on runway 1 from now on.  If you'd like to comment on this event, please feel free to do so.

Now, this being a New Year, many folks have New Year's resolutions, its a tradition the world over.  A new year affords a new plan, and time for making promises and goals that we will do this and won't do that, that we will love and serve others better than we have in the past, and will take better care of ourselves and our loved ones. 

But we fail.  We make resolutions, promises, and goals, then try to make new habits routine, and sometimes they do stick, but often they fail, eventually.  Where does that leave us when we fail?  In regards to our standing with God, where does that leave us when we fail?

I'd like to take this moment to encourage you (as well as myself when I read this later) that if you call Jesus Christ your Savior, you have an amazing fringe benefit.  When you fail, when you slip up, when you take your eyes off of the prize, when you let others or yourself down, basically, when you sin, take heart!  Because God promises this, from Second Corinthians 5:17-19 and 5:21: 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.  God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

"In Christ" (being spiritually connected to the body of believers in Jesus Christ), you are a new creation!  Like the old year has gone and the new year has come, the old person has gone and the new person has come.  Its a time to start over, a time to go-around and try again.  Believers aren't meant to continue in their old ways, they are meant to glorify God with their thoughts, actions, and their lives.  And the Holy Spirit, in concert with a believer's will submitted to its leading, gives the desire and power to live as a new creation of God.

Paraphrasing verse 21, Jesus, who never sinned, was made sin for us (by dying on the cross), so that through faith in Him we can be called righteous by God, (not by our own good deeds or works).  (See, turning to the right was and is a good thing!).  We are justified and saved by grace, through faith (Romans 3-4) as Abraham was.  Its a marvelous mystery, but true; read Romans 3-4 if you'd like to know more. 

If you believe in Jesus and can call him your personal Savior, but aren't happy with the way you've been living, God wants to meet you where you're at!  And that is one of the best things about Jesus, He IS a God who meets people where they're at - at their greatest point of need. 

With God's grace in our lives and a justification/salvation by faith, not by works, believers can do as many go-arounds and do-overs as needed to get through this life, with the assurance that we will spend eternity with God in heaven.  Knowledge of our true nature of salvation and the value of the work Jesus accomplished on the cross and in the resurrection results in believers becoming committed to the Lord, in just a fraction of the measure in return, that Jesus is committed to us.  My prayer for you is that you experience more of the Love and fellowship of our Lord, and that you have a better and blessed 2011.  Happy New Year!  God Bless you, and thanks again for reading my blog.

Cake every night!?

For most of this month, my job is literally a piece of CAKe every night. I'm flying short trips, called 'standups', or 'high-speeds', or CDO's (Continuous Duty Overnights) from DC to Akron-Canton, OH (CAK) and back to DC in the morning. We leave DC at 8 PM, get to the hotel by 10, the van leaves back to the airport at 5:30 AM, and I'm napping at the crashpad by 8:30, if things go as planned. Then we do it all over again that night.

If this sounds like a short overnight, it is. Even though we sleep (a little) we're still considered to be on duty, because we almost, but don't quite get the normal minimum legal rest period of 9 hours. For CDO's, however, this is a pretty good deal. This schedule gives me much time at home this month. I commute to DC after Sunday Church and pull back in my driveway by 2 PM Wednesday. CDO schedules are rare in my base, next month they're gone.

Some folks have the impression that airline flying is like the Dire Straights' song "Money for Nothing", all glamour and wealth, sitting down on the job (guilty), button pushing and auto-pilot baby sitting. I assure you we do work, and get weary and tired. Just ask Shannon how I snore my first night back home! Let me share with you how much I actually 'work' for my living, and a few of the FAA's duty and flight limits for pilots.

I'm basically paid by the flight hour, and I fly 75-100 hours a month. That doesn't sound like very much compared to a normal 160 hour month for day-jobbers. However, for the last four months I've averaged the time on duty I've worked, and it's come out to a surprising 159 hours per month. We have many duties to perform in addition to operating the flights. Being in uniform, on duty, at the airport is the equivalent to being at the office or factory, it's just that we get compensated only when the engines are turning.

Here's some of the FAA's mysterious and confusing required rest and duty limits: We have to have a minimum of 8 in the last 24 hours off between shifts, or in other words our maximum on duty period is 16 hours. We can be scheduled to fly a maximum of 8 hours in a shift (duty period). We can't actually fly more than 30 hours in a 7 day period, 100 hours per month, or 1,000 hours per year. Our required rest depends on the amount of flying that we're projected to do within the previous 24 hours (future schedule looking backwards), it can range from 9 hours to 12 hours minimum.

Rest can frequently be an issue, that's a given. Instead of dwelling on that, I'll say that the FAA operates the best aviation system in the world, and has generally pretty good regulations. The US and European airline industry's safety record is second to none, and a model for the rest of the world. (I wrote this last sentence before the tragic Continental Connection accident occurred in Buffalo last week, incidentally.)

Having an autopilot, advanced navigation systems, and an additional crew member eases the work load some, but overall my work is still work. It's more than pushing buttons, yanking and banking, and working the radio.

Each flight and each day, weather and aircraft must be checked, decisions are to be made, risk is to be managed, navigation programming must be done, the 'team' is to be led, checklists and briefs are to be performed, and customer service is to be given. And none of these things are actually flying the aircraft, but they all pertain to the job in some way.

Just as my job, as blessed as I feel I am to have a career I have a real passion for is, it is real work. As is the work the Lord is doing within those of us who are in Christ Jesus.

The subject of work, and how it relates to God's Grace, has been on my mind and heart for some time now. Admittedly, my understanding of works and grace has not always been consistent with correct scriptural and theological teachings. Consider the verse from Ephesians 2:8-10, which imparts how we've been saved by grace and not by works: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

Besides the incredible grace by which we've been saved, we're expected and destined to do good works. But does grace have anything to do with it? How do we get there from here, from a position of salvation to sanctification? And what about when we stumble? The process of sanctification has at times been one of misconceptions for me.

A song that has been really in my head the last week is 'Work' by Jars of Clay. Part of it echoes within me:

I have no fear of drowning
It's the breathing
That's taking all this Work

Are we assured of our salvation, but struggling to please and honor God, to curry favor and blessings from God, by trying to perform good works in our own strength? Are we stuck living by our works for God instead of by his grace? And then, after consistently failing and falling into sin, gradually going into a cycle of guilt and discouragement, slowly and steadily losing confidence than we can win the battle of backsliding in our lives? This has been me at times; I've found that this attitude can creep up on me like a few extra pounds over the long cold Iowa winter.

I'm reading an excellent book called Transforming Grace by Jerry Bridges, and I'm (re-)learning a few things. It's actually my wife's book, and I don't know why I haven't read it before now. The gist of it is that on this earth, the same GRACE by which I was saved through faith is the same GRACE by which I grow in Christ Jesus. The Father, Abba, doesn't operate with Christians on a grace plus works basis! He operates with Christians on a GRACE only basis!

We don't live under the law anymore, we live under grace! This is straight from Romans 6:14: (NLT): "Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God's grace."

The study of grace, faith, works, and 'the law' can open a theological can of worms, but this book seems to sort it out quite well. I'd like to quote Jerry Bridges from his book, p. 47: "The fact that God deals with His children on the basis of grace without regard to merit or demerit is a staggering concept. It is opposed to almost everything we have been taught about life." How truly staggering the concept of the depth of God's grace and love is. It surely is amazing grace.

However, it's one thing to believe that God is full of grace, but another to actually experience and feel God's grace in our lives. In the smoke and mirrors our secular and capitalistic society operates in, the grace our heavenly Father offers can be a mysterious and elusive presence. For encouragement of the increase of grace and the working of the Lord in your life, I offer an exhortation from II Peter 3:18: "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory now and forever!"; and encouragement from Philippians 1:6: "being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus".

A small, small picture, or comparison of God's grace to my situation is this: this month I'm only scheduled to fly 34 hours, but because of my pilot union's contract with my airline, I'm guaranteed to be paid for 75 hours. I'm getting paid for work I didn't do. Now this doesn't mean we have to do 34 hours of God's work to get paid for 75 hours for it, it's more like we do one second of work for it. With Christ, we're getting paid eternal life, and life to the full, in return for work we didn't do, all we have to do is believe and receive it. Jesus Christ of Nazareth did all the work for us on the Cross of Calvary. A catchy acronym (pilots love acronyms) for GRACE is God's Riches At Christ's Expense.

In God's grace, our sins, even the future ones we'll commit tomorrow, next year, the next decade, forever, are wiped away. From Psalm 103:12: "He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west." If you're a pilot (well even if you're not), you know that's a long way, infinity in fact. You see, on the earth, north and south directions meet and converge at the north and south poles, but east and west directions never meet. With God's grace active in our lives, it can feel like we spiritually have cake every night! And that's a GREAT thing.

"Only Grace" by Matthew West