Last night we were cruising in smooth night air at 29,000 feet when Boston Center cleared us to descend to "Flight Level one-nine-zero". Us being 280 miles and 47 minutes north of Philadelphia, en route from Ottawa, Canada, that didn't seem right. I asked my First Officer to get an explanation from them, while I slowly started our early descent to FL190. The controller sputtered something back like 'well got crossing traffic descending blah blah NY' etc., so I grudingly accepted his explanation. At least we questioned it, I should've asked him why before we accepted the clearance, as that is within our rights as Pilots. Choppy air at our new altitude made the 'seat belt sign off' time short lived.
Then, however, I did have a few moments to observe the scene outside the small room we shared. The mostly full moon, the 'smaller great light', at our 10 O'clock high position above us, was shining through a sliding sheet of scattered thin clouds above us, like headlights shimmering through sheer curtains in a secret pair of lover's room of rendezvous. Right in front of us, shined upon by our nose landing light, rain from nowhere is hitting us at 320 knots indicated, without a sound or feel, as the turbulence had subsided for a bit.
That, combined with the rest of the sky, make for a surreal scene. Life at this instant wasn't black and white, but all in shades of gray, nuanced in mottled, smooth cloud layers swished around near and far, with slate gray and muted blue tones backdropped toward terra firma and the upper atmosphere. The horizon was gone; only the brightly lit moon remained as a comfort.
I looked over at my dark haired, masculine First Officer, and he was deeply reading something I had given him earlier. He's a good Co-Pilot, but he had me irritated before, just a little bit, multiple times, after commiting various 'rookie' type errors. I resolved to watch him more closely and not let my guard down for the rest of the trip. "Look at this view, you can really appreciate this, with the moonlight and clouds sliding by", I said. With an aggressive but graceful and strong body language, for a long moment he gazed up at the moon, now exposed without any clouds in the way, then straightened up, leaned toward me, and looked me deeply in my eyes. Something about this was suddenly disconcerting to me. "Oh, I know about the moon, believe me, much more than you know". His clear and convicting words struck me suddenly as I felt the adrenaline rushing through me. 'Surely he sees, and certainly enjoys, seeing my eyes widen', I thought upon comprehending that his gaping smile now shows his fangs, real fangs, bared, fangs I have always associated with the 'legend' of vampires and horror films. Until now, that is.
Fear has shown itself to me, and is suddenly rushing me headlong, forcing me to react, as strongly as is humanly possible for me to do so.
The previous was mostly true, except for the Co-Pilot part. Happy Halloween, I guess, and I hope you're not offended by my foray into the 'dark side'. But I tell you this, by my own experience and lay training, I believe that Evil (with a capital E) is not just the subject of legends and folklore, woven over the milleniums and our last few centuries into our culture and traditions. Evil exists, and it has a name. In my experience, evil constitutes the enemy, or the thief, and "the thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy" I have come that they may have life, and that may have it more abundantly." - some of Jesus' most excellent words from John 10:10.
Fear is a strong emotion that does force us to react, whether in life or in flight. As a matter of coincidence, everyone has heard of the term 'fight or flight' in regard to how humans react in situations of fear or danger. How do Christians react, and what spiritual weapons and tools do Christians have at their disposal to fight evil? Good question, I could wax all day long on my lay knowledge and my personal experiences of dealing with what in my heart I consider to be true encounters with evil.
Ok, you twisted my arm, here are a few paragraphs straight from my faith narrative I refrenced twice in previous 'New Vantage Point' blog posts: "Once each, during the last two of my college years, a striking thing occured to me that I responded to in the strength of th Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. As I was trying to fall asleep demons attacked me, in my dreams, perhaps. It felt like it happened right when I was on the precipice of being unconscious. They had the appearance and atmosphere of true evil and hatred, like nothing I've ever experienced. Both times I sat upright in bed, rebuked the demons loudly in Jesus name, and prayed in confidence that I would sleep like a baby. I woke up both times well rested, asking myself "did that really happen?", then answered my roomate's questions about what was going on last night. Then I recalled that when I was a child, my mother taught me well how to rebuke Satan and evil spirits. I feel that these this experiences indicated the spiritual reality of the wrestling going on between God and the enemy over control of my will and sin nature." BTW thanks Mom!
As Christians, what shall we fear? Better yet, as humans, what shall we fear? I found a few scriptures which might shed some light on the subject.
Jesus talks quite a bit about Hell in the gospels. As distasteful as it may taste to the sense of fairness and the expression of human freedom, the Bible teaches that Hell is an eternal destination for some. I don't want to defend the concept of Hell straight on too much, so click here for a thoughtful explanation on Hell.
The corollary, or opposite reasoning for it, might start with the following free-form expression: Without getting too theological, God is a Holy, Pefect God, and in the eternal scheme of things, God demands that all beings who exist in his realm be perfect. We become perfect and holy in God's eyes by believing and receiving, in our heart of hearts, Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord. The incredible, merciful, full of grace, and loving sacrifice of Jesus, The one and only true Son of God, being crucified on this cross for our sins and imperfectness enables this to be so. The theological term is sustitutionary atonement; Jesus Christ died for our sins on the cross as a substitute for us. He took the punishment for our sins so we can have a true relationship with God now and for eternity.
So, those who die who have rejected Jesus Christ as their personal savior are in danger of being sent to Hell for eternity, to be separated from God. Jesus backs me up with his words in John 3:18: "He who believes in Him (God's Son) is not condemned; bt he who does not believe is condemned already, beacause he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." Also, in Luke 12:5 Jesus gives a clear warning on what to fear: "But I will show you whom to fear: Fear Him (God) who, after he has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you fear Him!".
In spite of the starkness those who stand next to standard tradition Christian doctrine espouse, blessings are yours and mine to be had, available straight from the Bible, in many verses where we are taught not to fear:
From Psalm 27:1: "the Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?"
Another great passage on fear from Romans 8, which my aforementioned Co-Pilot helped me find (he really is a great guy, a fellow brother in Christ, we talk about our common faith and Lord quite a bit) is from Paul's letter to the Romans in chapter 8:28-39 (New International Version)
'More Than Conquerors'
"28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Yes, you might be wondering after a careful reading of that passage, whether I think that the world is a dangerous place for Christians. I fully agree that it is, and that it is getting more dangerous. And I stand confidently on God's promises that we have nothing to fear in Christ Jesus name. Glory be to Almighty God!
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Feel like a nap?
As everyone knows, last Wednesday, October 21st, Northwest Airlines flight 188, an Airbus A320-200, en route from San Diego, CA to Minneapolis, MN with 147 passengers, overflew the Twin Cities airport by 150 miles before they turned back toward Minneapolis, after being alerted by a Flight Attendant.
Radio contact was lost with the flight when it was 130nm southeast of Denver, CO. The airplane continued and overflew their destination 62 minutes later, and continued on an easterly heading for another 15 minutes before radio communication was re-established about 110nm east of Minneapolis. The airplane then descended to FL320, turned around and landed safely in Minneapolis 45 minutes after radio contact was restored.
The NTSB reported that the crew told ATC that they had become distracted and had overflown Minneapolis, and now requested to return. According to post flight interviews, the FAA reported that the crew had engaged in a heated debate over airline policies and had lost situational awareness. The NTSB have opened an investigation, scheduled an interview with the crew and secured the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder of the airplane.
The Co-Pilot gave a short interview to CNN, insisting that they weren't sleeping and they weren't arguing, as everyone seems to suspect. In my (professional) opinion, a 'heated debate over airline policies' actually seems likely, as Northwest Airlines continues the integration process with Delta Airlines, their merger-buyout partner. In the future these two legacy carriers will be fully integrated as Delta, for now the NWA planes are being repainted, and Northwest Pilots have to adopt Delta's flight standards and procedures, a recent occurrence. This can encompass virtually every detail in how the pilots operate the airliner and perform the flights, and the reasons and philosophy behind the procedures. It is a credible cause for distraction, because procedures can vary widely from one airline to the next: most veteran airline pilots who are 'set in their ways' might likely oppose operating according to new procedures and standards.
However, it is not a valid excuse for overflying your destination, a major hub for the airline this Captain, at least, had presumably flown for at least a decade. That being said, I do not wish to disparage these Pilots, in fact, I'd like to express a little sympathy for them.
The following is a common saying, at least at the regional carriers, of the Captain briefing the Co-Pilot on 'nap' protocol while en-route on a 'long' flight (one of perhaps more than 2.5 hours): "Don't let me wake up to find you sleeping". It's cute and light hearted, but sets a certain standard at the same time, that IF (and that is a big if) one pilot is to 'catch a few winks', the other pilot shall handle everything involved in flying the plane, and shall be alert and awake. I don't adopt this saying, because I don't want the idea of napping in the flight deck to become commonplace in my operations. Do I ever do it or permit it? I won't deny that it hasn't occurred before; it is honestly a rare occurrence, perhaps a half dozen times a year. When it does occur, I prefer that a strict standard be set, and that it be allowed only because it is agreed upon that a rest will improve the alertness of the pilot in question. It's all in the interest of safety, see?
I insist that if the Captain or First Officer wants to take a nap, that it first be approved by the Captain, that both crewmembers are comfortable with the idea, and that the remaining crewmember agrees to have complete responsibility for the aircraft, and will remain awake and alert.
Though when I think about it, we have a situation where only one pilot is awake in the flight deck frequently. The other pilot isn't sleeping; he isn't there, period. And it happens on long flights. What I'm speaking of is, of course, when a pilot has to take a bathroom break. On our regional jet the lavatory is in the back of the jet, and we tend to call it 'the walk of shame', somehow it's a macho thing to be able to hold your bladder (these youngsters at the regionals, ya know).
So what's the difference between a 5-10 minute bathroom break (we still have the same needs you do, you know) and a 15-20 minute snooze? Not much really. Actually, if an emergency occurs while a pilot is sleeping, he has a better chance to be a beneficial crew member than if one occurs while he is indisposed in the lavatory. It's all in how it is perceived, and I am trying to be sensitive to the public in that regard.
How could a pilot even consider taking a nap with all those passengers’ lives in his hands? Put yourself in the pilot's place. Think, you have a four day trip, all early shows, 5:30 AM vans to the airport. You're flying on the east coast but you live in Denver. On day three you have an accumulated sleep debt of 15-18 hours, and that's being generous. On that one long flight, with beautiful weather and a smooth ride, the sandman can come, with a vengeance. Reading puts you to sleep, and there is no energy to talk, or desire perhaps. Post 9-11 security protocol doesn't prohibit opening the door to fetch a cup of coffee, but it does discourage it somewhat. And coffee can only keep you awake and alert for so long.
Both pilots, sleeping? Absolutely unacceptable in any book, obviously. I'm not saying that these pilots were sleeping, but it has happened before, in Hawaii of all places. Read about last year's flight of Go! Airlines flight 1022.
As strange and as uncomfortable as it may sound, legalization of pilot napping could possibly become a reality in the future. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, "U.S. airlines and their unions have joined forces to push the Federal Aviation Administration to let pilots do what was once unthinkable: sleep on the job." Research has been performed and provides "overwhelming evidence that controlled napping provides significant" ways to reduce fatigue risk.
For now, I'm going to give these NWA Pilots the benefit of the doubt. In spite of the likelyhood that I haven't reassured you that your pilot isn't sleeping during your next long airline flight, let me tell you straight up: you have nothing to worry about. "Sit back, relax, and enjoy the rest of the flight. (And maybe take a nap, the air in the cabin is at pressurized to an 8,000 foot elevation, and that book you have is putting you to sleep anway!)".
Radio contact was lost with the flight when it was 130nm southeast of Denver, CO. The airplane continued and overflew their destination 62 minutes later, and continued on an easterly heading for another 15 minutes before radio communication was re-established about 110nm east of Minneapolis. The airplane then descended to FL320, turned around and landed safely in Minneapolis 45 minutes after radio contact was restored.
The NTSB reported that the crew told ATC that they had become distracted and had overflown Minneapolis, and now requested to return. According to post flight interviews, the FAA reported that the crew had engaged in a heated debate over airline policies and had lost situational awareness. The NTSB have opened an investigation, scheduled an interview with the crew and secured the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder of the airplane.
The Co-Pilot gave a short interview to CNN, insisting that they weren't sleeping and they weren't arguing, as everyone seems to suspect. In my (professional) opinion, a 'heated debate over airline policies' actually seems likely, as Northwest Airlines continues the integration process with Delta Airlines, their merger-buyout partner. In the future these two legacy carriers will be fully integrated as Delta, for now the NWA planes are being repainted, and Northwest Pilots have to adopt Delta's flight standards and procedures, a recent occurrence. This can encompass virtually every detail in how the pilots operate the airliner and perform the flights, and the reasons and philosophy behind the procedures. It is a credible cause for distraction, because procedures can vary widely from one airline to the next: most veteran airline pilots who are 'set in their ways' might likely oppose operating according to new procedures and standards.
However, it is not a valid excuse for overflying your destination, a major hub for the airline this Captain, at least, had presumably flown for at least a decade. That being said, I do not wish to disparage these Pilots, in fact, I'd like to express a little sympathy for them.
The following is a common saying, at least at the regional carriers, of the Captain briefing the Co-Pilot on 'nap' protocol while en-route on a 'long' flight (one of perhaps more than 2.5 hours): "Don't let me wake up to find you sleeping". It's cute and light hearted, but sets a certain standard at the same time, that IF (and that is a big if) one pilot is to 'catch a few winks', the other pilot shall handle everything involved in flying the plane, and shall be alert and awake. I don't adopt this saying, because I don't want the idea of napping in the flight deck to become commonplace in my operations. Do I ever do it or permit it? I won't deny that it hasn't occurred before; it is honestly a rare occurrence, perhaps a half dozen times a year. When it does occur, I prefer that a strict standard be set, and that it be allowed only because it is agreed upon that a rest will improve the alertness of the pilot in question. It's all in the interest of safety, see?
I insist that if the Captain or First Officer wants to take a nap, that it first be approved by the Captain, that both crewmembers are comfortable with the idea, and that the remaining crewmember agrees to have complete responsibility for the aircraft, and will remain awake and alert.
Though when I think about it, we have a situation where only one pilot is awake in the flight deck frequently. The other pilot isn't sleeping; he isn't there, period. And it happens on long flights. What I'm speaking of is, of course, when a pilot has to take a bathroom break. On our regional jet the lavatory is in the back of the jet, and we tend to call it 'the walk of shame', somehow it's a macho thing to be able to hold your bladder (these youngsters at the regionals, ya know).
So what's the difference between a 5-10 minute bathroom break (we still have the same needs you do, you know) and a 15-20 minute snooze? Not much really. Actually, if an emergency occurs while a pilot is sleeping, he has a better chance to be a beneficial crew member than if one occurs while he is indisposed in the lavatory. It's all in how it is perceived, and I am trying to be sensitive to the public in that regard.
How could a pilot even consider taking a nap with all those passengers’ lives in his hands? Put yourself in the pilot's place. Think, you have a four day trip, all early shows, 5:30 AM vans to the airport. You're flying on the east coast but you live in Denver. On day three you have an accumulated sleep debt of 15-18 hours, and that's being generous. On that one long flight, with beautiful weather and a smooth ride, the sandman can come, with a vengeance. Reading puts you to sleep, and there is no energy to talk, or desire perhaps. Post 9-11 security protocol doesn't prohibit opening the door to fetch a cup of coffee, but it does discourage it somewhat. And coffee can only keep you awake and alert for so long.
Both pilots, sleeping? Absolutely unacceptable in any book, obviously. I'm not saying that these pilots were sleeping, but it has happened before, in Hawaii of all places. Read about last year's flight of Go! Airlines flight 1022.
As strange and as uncomfortable as it may sound, legalization of pilot napping could possibly become a reality in the future. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, "U.S. airlines and their unions have joined forces to push the Federal Aviation Administration to let pilots do what was once unthinkable: sleep on the job." Research has been performed and provides "overwhelming evidence that controlled napping provides significant" ways to reduce fatigue risk.
For now, I'm going to give these NWA Pilots the benefit of the doubt. In spite of the likelyhood that I haven't reassured you that your pilot isn't sleeping during your next long airline flight, let me tell you straight up: you have nothing to worry about. "Sit back, relax, and enjoy the rest of the flight. (And maybe take a nap, the air in the cabin is at pressurized to an 8,000 foot elevation, and that book you have is putting you to sleep anway!)".
Thursday, October 22, 2009
To 'Zinzinnati' in 'Oktober'
Yesterday I started a four day trip, and the big H on the weather map meant mostly blue skies, sunshine, and generally smooth air all day long. Charlotte to Cincinnati was our third flight out of five. Out of the Charlotte area and headed northwest, we were climbing through 21,000 feet, I was flying with the autopilot engaged, and I took a few moments to enjoy the views.
What I describe won't match what it looked like, because this picture is from two weeks ago, but it was another flight from Charlotte to Cincinnati. Differences: the clouds are below us, with cumulus formation, which means curved, rounded edges, and a little turbulent air inside them. The white sun is in common, and the evening and autumn colors, though. I like the long shadows the sun cast behind the lumpy cumulus jutting up from the top of the layer in the foreground. I don't have a good picture from yesterday, but next is my description of it.
The long ridges of the Great Smoky Mountains, displayed in a blue-gray, darkening, almost pixilated tint, were in front of and below us, and the haze between them helped to frame their wavy washboard ripples. From the horizon, long, flat and gray stratus clouds raised above to a white reflection above our altitude, the top of the clouds being illuminated by our white sun above and to our left. It was still gleaming while the angle this section of the planet Earth gave it a few moments more to do so, in its ever-present spin. The blue skies above our present position wouldn't last much longer.
We were now at 24,000 feet, our groundspeed was 400 knots and accelerating, and we would be in Cincinnati in 45 minutes. Looking far below I see autumn, orange and yellow textures on the long, alligator spiny, arcing ridges, interspersed with snaking rivers in the valleys they are constrained by. The airplane is a great way to observe geological features. With my lack of knowledge, though, I have more questions that answers.
The colors, and where we're headed, reminds me of a good time I had once on an overnight, attending the Oktoberfest in 'Zinzinnati', as a co-pilot when we were flying for a different airline. Cincinnati hosts the second largest Oktoberfest in the world, next to the one in Munich, where it originated. Authentic German food, drink, dancing and songs, and culture can be found throughout it. I thought just maybe if the airplane broke on the way into Cincinnati this evening, we could perhaps repeat it. But here in the Columbia, SC hotel I found out while blogging this that 'Oktoberfest Zinzinnati' is actually held during the third weekend in September.
Yes, I'm writing about drinking beer, and yes, I believe a Christian can have an alcoholic drink in clear conscience. I like a good beer or glass of wine with a meal. 'Everything in moderation', right? To me, at least, Oktoberfest isn't about getting drunk, but about celebrating with others the food, drink, and culture Germany has brought the world. I happen to think that God want us to celebrate life. After all, wasn't Jesus first miracle when he turned the water into wine at the wedding party, after "the guests have drunk freely" and they had run out of wine? (John 2:1-11 ESV)
To be clear, I am for the responsible use of alcohol, whether by your own consumption, or by limiting your use in order to avoid tempting others. Jesus teaches this clearly in Matthew 18. After he characterizes new Christians as humbled children (not a condescension by the way) and as the 'greatest in the kingdom of heaven', he warns against temping these new creatures to sin. From Matthew, 18:5-7 (ESV): 5 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, 6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. 7 “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!"
Now, these words, directed straight to my heart do have an implication for me personally. I would never open a bar, for example. Jesus' teachings can be difficult to put into practice; we can only hope to do so in submission to God and in a heart attitude of receiving and following the Holy Spirit's guidance in our lives.
Here's a fellow blogger's good post on temptation.
This is another good post on 'Do not be drunk'; instead be filled with the aforementioned Holy Spirit. Ephesians 5:17-20 (NIV) advises the same: "17Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. 18Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. 19Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."
It is worldly wisdom that drunkenness lowers inhibitions and increases temptation, and in a roundabout way, the good word agrees on this: From Galatians 5:19-21: "19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God."
Drunkenness is actually part of the sinful nature; this is what we're really talking about here. In our lives, it seems that our hearts need to be filled with something, whether it is drink, the Holy Spirit, or something else. What fills your heart?
The long ridges of the Great Smoky Mountains, displayed in a blue-gray, darkening, almost pixilated tint, were in front of and below us, and the haze between them helped to frame their wavy washboard ripples. From the horizon, long, flat and gray stratus clouds raised above to a white reflection above our altitude, the top of the clouds being illuminated by our white sun above and to our left. It was still gleaming while the angle this section of the planet Earth gave it a few moments more to do so, in its ever-present spin. The blue skies above our present position wouldn't last much longer.
We were now at 24,000 feet, our groundspeed was 400 knots and accelerating, and we would be in Cincinnati in 45 minutes. Looking far below I see autumn, orange and yellow textures on the long, alligator spiny, arcing ridges, interspersed with snaking rivers in the valleys they are constrained by. The airplane is a great way to observe geological features. With my lack of knowledge, though, I have more questions that answers.
The colors, and where we're headed, reminds me of a good time I had once on an overnight, attending the Oktoberfest in 'Zinzinnati', as a co-pilot when we were flying for a different airline. Cincinnati hosts the second largest Oktoberfest in the world, next to the one in Munich, where it originated. Authentic German food, drink, dancing and songs, and culture can be found throughout it. I thought just maybe if the airplane broke on the way into Cincinnati this evening, we could perhaps repeat it. But here in the Columbia, SC hotel I found out while blogging this that 'Oktoberfest Zinzinnati' is actually held during the third weekend in September.
Yes, I'm writing about drinking beer, and yes, I believe a Christian can have an alcoholic drink in clear conscience. I like a good beer or glass of wine with a meal. 'Everything in moderation', right? To me, at least, Oktoberfest isn't about getting drunk, but about celebrating with others the food, drink, and culture Germany has brought the world. I happen to think that God want us to celebrate life. After all, wasn't Jesus first miracle when he turned the water into wine at the wedding party, after "the guests have drunk freely" and they had run out of wine? (John 2:1-11 ESV)
To be clear, I am for the responsible use of alcohol, whether by your own consumption, or by limiting your use in order to avoid tempting others. Jesus teaches this clearly in Matthew 18. After he characterizes new Christians as humbled children (not a condescension by the way) and as the 'greatest in the kingdom of heaven', he warns against temping these new creatures to sin. From Matthew, 18:5-7 (ESV): 5 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, 6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. 7 “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!"
Now, these words, directed straight to my heart do have an implication for me personally. I would never open a bar, for example. Jesus' teachings can be difficult to put into practice; we can only hope to do so in submission to God and in a heart attitude of receiving and following the Holy Spirit's guidance in our lives.
Here's a fellow blogger's good post on temptation.
This is another good post on 'Do not be drunk'; instead be filled with the aforementioned Holy Spirit. Ephesians 5:17-20 (NIV) advises the same: "17Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. 18Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. 19Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."
It is worldly wisdom that drunkenness lowers inhibitions and increases temptation, and in a roundabout way, the good word agrees on this: From Galatians 5:19-21: "19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God."
Drunkenness is actually part of the sinful nature; this is what we're really talking about here. In our lives, it seems that our hearts need to be filled with something, whether it is drink, the Holy Spirit, or something else. What fills your heart?
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Providence and the Glory in the skies
Dateline: September 25, 2009
We arrive at the White Plains airport at 5:15 AM, and after looking at the paperwork for our flight to DC, I exclaimed to my two crewmembers "negative APU". Usually that puts a damper on things, because it means our APU (Auxiliary Power Unit) isn't working, and we’ll require extra external equipment to electrically power the plane, to provide air pressure to start the engines, and to condition the cabin in hot or cold weather. It means headaches and possible delays to get those things. We’re to have the plane all day as well, flying four legs, but the cool and cloudy weather means we might get by without too warm of a cabin, at least starting out.
The capable ground crew gets the various carts connected in short order. Under my hands and fingers, I pull us off the ground at 6:15 AM. Climbing out toward the west, on our left we spy, sliding by, the behemoth known as New York City, sleepily waking up in gray and black silhouette, street lights shining their last moments before the partial orange sky behind us, hidden behind a sloping cloud deck, overcomes the faded darkness.
Now, below and to the left, over New Jersey now, the New York Giants stadium lights are still burning bright and white, on charged up battery power, so to speak, from the big Bono and company (U2) show last night. I could have gone, I really wanted to, the 'wife of my youth' gave clearance, but it would've been a 'goat rope' transportation wise, and definitely not compatible with a 4:30 AM wakeup call. I've seen them before; 84,472 fans set an attendance record there last night. Loving U2 is like loving Harleys, if you're not a fan, you wouldn't understand.
So what does 'providence' mean in relation to God? From Webster’s dictionary: “the care of benevolent guidance of God or nature; an instance of this”. It's not really in the bible as a term, but it is a theological one. It means to be divinely cared for, by God, in his protection and guidance, actually framing and preparing the stage for pre-ordained events to occur in your life. Scripturally, we can see this in my late, great Aunt’s favorite verse, Romans 8:28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” You can recognize providence in events, I call them “God things”, or not recognize them; that depends on your faith and outlook. It does take a little faith, I admit, and skeptics have the right and wherewithal to cast doubt on one’s witness of these things.
When events conspire to bless or protect one, naysayers talk of ‘having good luck’ or chalking it up to ‘just a coincidence’. The term luck seems to be used in two ways, both self focused: (1) to lament your lack of it and to express envy of others who have it, and (2) to credit your own worthiness of being lucky. Providence doesn’t focus on a ‘lucky’ person or an unknown reason and cause. Providence focuses on God, the providential one. Here is a good website to check out for more information on Providence from a Christian perspective: Providence in All of Life
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We arrive at the White Plains airport at 5:15 AM, and after looking at the paperwork for our flight to DC, I exclaimed to my two crewmembers "negative APU". Usually that puts a damper on things, because it means our APU (Auxiliary Power Unit) isn't working, and we’ll require extra external equipment to electrically power the plane, to provide air pressure to start the engines, and to condition the cabin in hot or cold weather. It means headaches and possible delays to get those things. We’re to have the plane all day as well, flying four legs, but the cool and cloudy weather means we might get by without too warm of a cabin, at least starting out.
The capable ground crew gets the various carts connected in short order. Under my hands and fingers, I pull us off the ground at 6:15 AM. Climbing out toward the west, on our left we spy, sliding by, the behemoth known as New York City, sleepily waking up in gray and black silhouette, street lights shining their last moments before the partial orange sky behind us, hidden behind a sloping cloud deck, overcomes the faded darkness.Now, below and to the left, over New Jersey now, the New York Giants stadium lights are still burning bright and white, on charged up battery power, so to speak, from the big Bono and company (U2) show last night. I could have gone, I really wanted to, the 'wife of my youth' gave clearance, but it would've been a 'goat rope' transportation wise, and definitely not compatible with a 4:30 AM wakeup call. I've seen them before; 84,472 fans set an attendance record there last night. Loving U2 is like loving Harleys, if you're not a fan, you wouldn't understand.
Onward to Providence we go, through DC. Providence is an interesting word and city in Rhode Island. A pretty city near the ocean, it has an inland bay that lets out gradually in postcard quality, scenic and sandy beach arcs to the Atlantic. From the air, on our route from DC, Connecticut seems to be hidden by Long Island, but RI is a nice transition area between New York and Massachusetts. Connecticut and Rhode Island are very green, given that there are quite a few wooded hills around. I’ve overnighted a few times in Providence, and have appreciated the nice folks there. My awesome cousin in the Coast Guard, Jose, used to be based in Rhode Island, and he and Sonya loved their stay there.
So what does 'providence' mean in relation to God? From Webster’s dictionary: “the care of benevolent guidance of God or nature; an instance of this”. It's not really in the bible as a term, but it is a theological one. It means to be divinely cared for, by God, in his protection and guidance, actually framing and preparing the stage for pre-ordained events to occur in your life. Scripturally, we can see this in my late, great Aunt’s favorite verse, Romans 8:28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” You can recognize providence in events, I call them “God things”, or not recognize them; that depends on your faith and outlook. It does take a little faith, I admit, and skeptics have the right and wherewithal to cast doubt on one’s witness of these things.
When events conspire to bless or protect one, naysayers talk of ‘having good luck’ or chalking it up to ‘just a coincidence’. The term luck seems to be used in two ways, both self focused: (1) to lament your lack of it and to express envy of others who have it, and (2) to credit your own worthiness of being lucky. Providence doesn’t focus on a ‘lucky’ person or an unknown reason and cause. Providence focuses on God, the providential one. Here is a good website to check out for more information on Providence from a Christian perspective: Providence in All of Life
My most memorable event showing God’s providence in my life has to do with an answer to prayer. There have been times where I’ve recognized that God was protecting me or providing for me, but the one I’m sharing still stirs me when I think about it, was in the 1988 fall semester, during my second year in college, in the dormitory at Oklahoma State.
One evening I was feeling especially lonely, desperate, and far from God. My relationship with God was standoffish, and one with Jesus as my Savior, and not quite my Lord. I was having a difficult time settling in the dorm, making friends, and studying well and making good grades. I prayed in the bathroom stall, crying out to God to rescue me. Immediately after I returned to my room, two older guys from The Navigators ministry knocked on my open door, wanting to share the gospel. It was an amazing, immediate answer to my prayer. I shared with them what I had just done, prayed the prayer of salvation with them, and started meeting with my new friend. However, I quickly broke it off, one reason being because I couldn’t convince him that I had already become a Christian as a child. Even though I was still a babe in Christ, he thought I was chronologically and literally a brand new Christian. My pride was perhaps in the way as well, and I still wasn’t ready to give the rest of my life up to the Lord. However, I was very gratified and thankful to see that God was still ‘knocking on the door of my heart’.
You might say there has been Providence at Providence, as well. On a foggy and dark December 1999 night, United Airlines flight 1448 made a few wrong turns while taxiing to the gate on arrival, wound up on the active runway, and had a near miss with a FedEx aircraft which took off on that runway. After that a US Airways jet refused takeoff clearance twice, before the mistake was realized.
God's providence is just one of many qualities of his character which gives us reasons to revel in his glory, as displayed in nature and in the skies. I see our God of wonders in the ever changing and dynamic sky, intermixed with the changing light, clouds, and terrain of the seasons. But I don’t worship the creation, as some do, I worship the creator through appreciating the creation. Last week I saw my pastor describe how he appreciated God by observing the beauty of a sunrise over local rolling farm fields, while jogging around our golf course. If he can experience that, how much more blessed am I to exercise and affirm my faith by experiencing God’s beauty, glory, and wonder in the scenes painted and created in his sky! It’s like he made it himself, just for me. Other pilots don't seem to appreciate it the same way I do. The next time you fly, look out the window, and commune with the Father of us all.
These days I try to read a Psalm each day, and often there are references to 'the heavens proclaiming the glory of God' (Psalm 19:1-4). I call them 'sky Psalms' and try to share them on twitter. I think I'll start sharing them here also. "God of Wonders", a great song of praise still played frequently on Christian music stations, has lyrics compiled straight from the Psalms:
“Lord of all creation, of water earth and sky
The heavens are your tabernacle
Glory to the lord on high!
God of wonders, beyond our galaxy, you are Holy, Holy
The universe declares your majesty, you are Holy, Holy
Hallelujah to Lord of heaven and earth, (3x)”
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Continuing our day, the ground crew at 'PVD' made quick work of us, even as our jet was crippled with a broken APU. We took off toward the south, before turning west toward Long Island, on the dogleg shaped route ATC gives us. The scenes that morning were especially striking. You can't see it too well, but in the first picture the sun is low, shining through the overcast cloud deck, far to the horizon. The light spilled low and long across the gray sea, leaving me spellbound till we turned the corner, to see . . .
One evening I was feeling especially lonely, desperate, and far from God. My relationship with God was standoffish, and one with Jesus as my Savior, and not quite my Lord. I was having a difficult time settling in the dorm, making friends, and studying well and making good grades. I prayed in the bathroom stall, crying out to God to rescue me. Immediately after I returned to my room, two older guys from The Navigators ministry knocked on my open door, wanting to share the gospel. It was an amazing, immediate answer to my prayer. I shared with them what I had just done, prayed the prayer of salvation with them, and started meeting with my new friend. However, I quickly broke it off, one reason being because I couldn’t convince him that I had already become a Christian as a child. Even though I was still a babe in Christ, he thought I was chronologically and literally a brand new Christian. My pride was perhaps in the way as well, and I still wasn’t ready to give the rest of my life up to the Lord. However, I was very gratified and thankful to see that God was still ‘knocking on the door of my heart’.
You might say there has been Providence at Providence, as well. On a foggy and dark December 1999 night, United Airlines flight 1448 made a few wrong turns while taxiing to the gate on arrival, wound up on the active runway, and had a near miss with a FedEx aircraft which took off on that runway. After that a US Airways jet refused takeoff clearance twice, before the mistake was realized.These days I try to read a Psalm each day, and often there are references to 'the heavens proclaiming the glory of God' (Psalm 19:1-4). I call them 'sky Psalms' and try to share them on twitter. I think I'll start sharing them here also. "God of Wonders", a great song of praise still played frequently on Christian music stations, has lyrics compiled straight from the Psalms:
“Lord of all creation, of water earth and sky
The heavens are your tabernacle
Glory to the lord on high!
God of wonders, beyond our galaxy, you are Holy, Holy
The universe declares your majesty, you are Holy, Holy
Hallelujah to Lord of heaven and earth, (3x)”
Continuing our day, the ground crew at 'PVD' made quick work of us, even as our jet was crippled with a broken APU. We took off toward the south, before turning west toward Long Island, on the dogleg shaped route ATC gives us. The scenes that morning were especially striking. You can't see it too well, but in the first picture the sun is low, shining through the overcast cloud deck, far to the horizon. The light spilled low and long across the gray sea, leaving me spellbound till we turned the corner, to see . . .
the very eastern edge of Long Island, New York below, with cirrus clouds right above our altitude, shades of jet blue all around. I should clarify that I'm pretty sure there were created from the contrails of other jets. I tried to enlarge the picture, but you get the idea. I experience beautiful scenes in the sky like these every trip. It's just that I appreciate them more than I used to, I believe.
Does God really exist in the clouds and sky, the heavens? Well, yes and no. The no part is that God is a spirit, and exists in another dimension, a spirit dimension. With faith, and his spiritual presence in our lives by the Holy Spirit (part of the Holy Trinity), God is spiritually there in the believer, evidenced by his glory in the skies. It's hard for my layman’s words to explain, but God's glory in the skies is a a visual and physical representation of a spiritual manifestation and reality.
The yes part is that biblically, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit do come and go on and in the clouds! See, let me show you. (1) When Moses led the the Israelites to the promised land for fourty years, "the cloud of the LORD was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel during all their travels" - Exodus 40:38. (2) When John the Baptist baptized Jesus to start his earthly ministry, "heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." "- Luke 3:21-22. (3) After Jesus appeared to his followers after he was resurrected from the dead and gave them 'the Great Commission', "he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it." - Mark 16:19-20.
And there are many other instances of this in his Holy word. There is a U2 song called "Window in the skies", and now I know another meaning for it. "Oh can't you see what Love has done?"
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
A Better Vantage Point, part II
Recently, in late summer I’ve experienced some beautiful sights and challenging work days: a vertical moon beam projected downward through a narrow gap in the clouds, an expansive and vibrant rainbow, cumulus clouds that carry a punch greater than their looks, the real milky way coupled with meteors, cloud shadows trying to camouflage themselves as the woods in hill valley bottoms below, ‘embedded’ thunderstorms trying to hide behind haze and surrounding stratus clouds, a selection of ‘interesting’ (to say the least) Flight Attendants, an ATC induced go-around at Philadelphia and Indianapolis, and a few long, delayed duty days.
But for this second ‘vantage point’, I’d like to take you back in time a few years to just after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, when I was based in Denver as a Captain flying the Beechcraft 1900 turboprop.
Flying for Great Lakes was basically driving me nuts, because during the fall of 2001I was getting junior manned to fly as a First Officer instead of as a Captain, and junior manned down to ten days off a month as well. I was able to switch bases to Minneapolis-St. Paul, and hoped for a lighter schedule load, and some adventurous winter flying. I learned that Vanguard Airlines, out of Kansas City, was growing their fleet and switching from 737’s to MD-80’s. KC is halfway between Tulsa, Oklahoma, where I grew up, and where we still live now in northwestern Iowa. It was kind of like a attracting an insect to a blue light.
That was the flying career situation for me by the spring of 2002. With tens of thousands of ‘heavy iron’ drivers furloughed or about to be furloughed from the majors, and none of the low cost carriers hiring, Vanguard seemed like a great place to go, until the majors and low cost carriers started hiring again, at least.
Their minimums were 1000 hours turbine PIC (pilot in command), but I applied anyway with 800 Turbine PIC, and got no response. After applying again with 1100, things happened quickly. I was soon in Vanguard’s ground school in Long Beach, California, experiencing a cool and rainy ‘So Cal’ spring while drinking up the MD-80’s systems ground school course from a fire hose, as the saying goes.
I had never flown a jet before, not a LearJet, and not a CitationJet. I was a little intimidated, because this was ‘Mad Dog’ jet, aptly named because of the MD initials and because the flying and handling characteristics aren’t reputed to be near as nice as the jets Mr. Boeing builds. Several fellow students in my class were veterans of Vanguard’s 737, and after learning about the McDonnell-Douglas product they recycled the old joke ‘Boeing builds airplanes, Douglas builds character’ among us. For an interesting page on the MD-80, click here.
After learning that the aircrafts’ roll control and pitch control wasn’t by hydraulics and was only by cable and ‘control tabs’, these same pilots said the MD-80 was the ‘0riginal fly by wire jet – on a one-eighth inch cable’. The ‘80’ was a stretched version of the DC-9, which had the same type of flight control system. The MD-80 also ushered in some new technology to the airlines, but it did so using an old style cockpit display and instrumentation. It had the ‘old school’ style ‘six pack’ of flight instruments in front of each pilot, but with an electronic display version of the attitude and horizontal situation indicator (EATT and EHSI). Added on was an advanced flight guidance system for the autopilot, automatic thrust control for the engines (autothrottles), and a flight management system (FMS). All this advancement in technology was meant to reduce the workload of the pilots, but because of the way it was cobbled together with the same usual instrumentation, plus additional panels for all the new technology, meant that in a way this aircraft actually increased the workload required by the pilots. I found this out quickly when flying it, and after transitioning later in my career to aircraft which have a full EFIS (Electronic Flight Instrumentation System) presentation on six TV like flight displays, I appreciated ‘full glass’ much more.
Once in the simulator, I found out that the quirks this jet had were true, the flying characteristics were like nothing I’ve ever flown before, even considering that I had never flown a jet. It was like being on the front end of a struggling sky dart. I was happy with how I made it through training in the simulator. However, once I started flying the real plane and got checked out online, it was an anxious transition. The controls felt funny, and it was a long jet, so long that I couldn’t see the wings from the seat. I was apprehensive about where to look, what to touch, and what the plane was going to do next.
But for this second ‘vantage point’, I’d like to take you back in time a few years to just after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, when I was based in Denver as a Captain flying the Beechcraft 1900 turboprop.
Flying for Great Lakes was basically driving me nuts, because during the fall of 2001I was getting junior manned to fly as a First Officer instead of as a Captain, and junior manned down to ten days off a month as well. I was able to switch bases to Minneapolis-St. Paul, and hoped for a lighter schedule load, and some adventurous winter flying. I learned that Vanguard Airlines, out of Kansas City, was growing their fleet and switching from 737’s to MD-80’s. KC is halfway between Tulsa, Oklahoma, where I grew up, and where we still live now in northwestern Iowa. It was kind of like a attracting an insect to a blue light.
That was the flying career situation for me by the spring of 2002. With tens of thousands of ‘heavy iron’ drivers furloughed or about to be furloughed from the majors, and none of the low cost carriers hiring, Vanguard seemed like a great place to go, until the majors and low cost carriers started hiring again, at least.
Their minimums were 1000 hours turbine PIC (pilot in command), but I applied anyway with 800 Turbine PIC, and got no response. After applying again with 1100, things happened quickly. I was soon in Vanguard’s ground school in Long Beach, California, experiencing a cool and rainy ‘So Cal’ spring while drinking up the MD-80’s systems ground school course from a fire hose, as the saying goes.
I had never flown a jet before, not a LearJet, and not a CitationJet. I was a little intimidated, because this was ‘Mad Dog’ jet, aptly named because of the MD initials and because the flying and handling characteristics aren’t reputed to be near as nice as the jets Mr. Boeing builds. Several fellow students in my class were veterans of Vanguard’s 737, and after learning about the McDonnell-Douglas product they recycled the old joke ‘Boeing builds airplanes, Douglas builds character’ among us. For an interesting page on the MD-80, click here.
After learning that the aircrafts’ roll control and pitch control wasn’t by hydraulics and was only by cable and ‘control tabs’, these same pilots said the MD-80 was the ‘0riginal fly by wire jet – on a one-eighth inch cable’. The ‘80’ was a stretched version of the DC-9, which had the same type of flight control system. The MD-80 also ushered in some new technology to the airlines, but it did so using an old style cockpit display and instrumentation. It had the ‘old school’ style ‘six pack’ of flight instruments in front of each pilot, but with an electronic display version of the attitude and horizontal situation indicator (EATT and EHSI). Added on was an advanced flight guidance system for the autopilot, automatic thrust control for the engines (autothrottles), and a flight management system (FMS). All this advancement in technology was meant to reduce the workload of the pilots, but because of the way it was cobbled together with the same usual instrumentation, plus additional panels for all the new technology, meant that in a way this aircraft actually increased the workload required by the pilots. I found this out quickly when flying it, and after transitioning later in my career to aircraft which have a full EFIS (Electronic Flight Instrumentation System) presentation on six TV like flight displays, I appreciated ‘full glass’ much more.
Once in the simulator, I found out that the quirks this jet had were true, the flying characteristics were like nothing I’ve ever flown before, even considering that I had never flown a jet. It was like being on the front end of a struggling sky dart. I was happy with how I made it through training in the simulator. However, once I started flying the real plane and got checked out online, it was an anxious transition. The controls felt funny, and it was a long jet, so long that I couldn’t see the wings from the seat. I was apprehensive about where to look, what to touch, and what the plane was going to do next.
The flight guidance system, which controlled the autopilot and flight director, was fully functional, but had to be used gingerly and wisely, or one would risk giving the passengers an uncomfortable and jerky ride. The same thinking went regarding the autothrottles. On line, good technique necessitated that we lead and lag the autothrottles thrust settings, and program a descent or climb rate slowly. Otherwise the passengers would get pushed or pulled in their seats too much.
The FMA – the flight mode annunciator, was a panel which displayed the armed and active modes of the autopilot and flight director. On a more modern EFIS aircraft the flight modes are shown just above the attitude indication, so in result, this separate panel actually increased our work scan: it was another instrument to include in our ‘scan’.
Hand flying the jet was interesting. Lag in the control response was to be expected, especially in pitch. In pitch the force felt in the control yoke was springy and spongy, light at first but it increased at a non-linear rate. There was a large null spot where the aircraft was trimmed out, where movement of the yoke seemed to not affect the pitch attitude of the aircraft at all. It was light in roll, and the yoke was spring centered back to neutral when released. When the yoke reached 5 degrees deflection, the roll spoilers deployed, and the roll rate increased suddenly. The rudder was the only surface powered hydraulically.
Click here for a good link to a few pictures of Vanguard's Md-80's. My first landing in one, with my hands on the controls was a doozey, oh it was! Seeing in my peripheral vision my Check Airman Captain reaching for yoke during flare is not a good thing. I had already increased back pressure during the flare, and didn’t know just where the ground was, so to speak. I was trying to land it ‘like the simulator’, how I had been told. But the sight picture out the window was totally different than I was used to, as at touchdown the deck height above the ground in the ‘80’ is quite a few feet higher than in the 1900. I knew this, and tried to compensate for it. Observing the plane sink the last ten feet down to the runway surface is a useful clue while landing, but it takes a while to get used to the sight picture in order to discern this. In a long jet the nose is increasing in pitch angle as you land, this mitigates the sink sight clues somewhat. The radio altimeter had called out our height above the ground from 50 feet down in ten foot increments. Well, it was supposed to be ten foot increments. “50-30-20-10” bam! Somewhere far behind me (72 feet or thereabouts) the tires hit like a body part hitting furniture while walking in slumber in a friend’s dark house. We didn’t bounce, I realized as I perceived the cockpit bulkhead shaking behind us in a wave of reverberation from the point of impact. Ugh, oh well. Chuck, my Check Airman, didn’t ask for a hard landing inspection after we both gave it a good once over during the post flight inspection. That was good, and I hoped I could redeem myself. The next few landings went better, fortunately!
There are similarities between learning and flying a new and unfamiliar airplane and growing spiritually in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Apprehension, anxiety, excitement/joy, and exhilaration can and will be experienced from one moment to the next, side by side. A classic phrase from aviation (the movie Top Gun) is "highway to the danger zone", and the similar phrase in Christianity describing spiritual growth, especially in mission, is to "get out of your comfort zone". A sense of purpose, mission, and challenge that each arena has can help provide motivation to fulfill the hopes and goals presented. Most of all, learning a new plane or growing in Christ isn’t best done alone; one is much more productive being engaged with the intimate personal assistance, teaching, and learning involved in each endeavor.
In ‘A better Vantage Point, Part I’ in August I wrote a little about the Vantage Point 3 program, a discipleship course my wife and I were in last year at our church. I’ll share with you now the details of the course. In part III (there’s a part III? ;) I’ll share the changes I’ve experienced as a result.
VP3 (for short) has helped to spark a process of renewal in both of our lives and in our marriage. Growing in Christ can be difficult; we’ve learned again that growing pains aren’t only for children. As Christians, it’s often easy to feel comfortable where we are in our spiritual lives. VP3 is a ministry based in Sioux Falls, SD, and their purpose is to develop emerging leaders for the church, to call and enable Christians to become who they are destined to be in Christ Jesus. It’s much like a discipleship group, but it operates a little differently. Our group of five men and nine women, plus our facilitator/associate Pastor, met together for an hour and a half each week. The sessions presented challenging thoughts and questions, and involved personal introspection and sharing from all of us.
The first stage of VP3 was called Biblical Foundations of Leadership. From a scripturally personal standpoint, I became reacquainted with my Christian foundations, and articulated my own personal biblical values. It was a confrontational experience to consider the values I say I have verses how I actually live them out. I was asked to consider and draft a personal biblical mandate.
As a class, we read four books. My two favorites were In the Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen, and The Gift of Being Yourself by David Benner. Nouwen has a unique but sound angle to our relationship with Jesus and how he can authentically be lived out in our lives. One big concept Nouwen expresses is that we should seek to be irrelevant to other people, not relevant, as one would assume. Why? Because as we are irrelevant to others while in relationship with them, they see and receive us as vulnerable, naked, and stripped to the core of our being. A being which has Christ lived out of us in Love, sacrifice, suffering, and serving others purely, just as Jesus did when he walked the earth. They can only respond in two ways: receive us as we are in Christ’s Love, or reject us.
Knowing God was of course a focus of VP3, but more emphasis was put on knowing your self, in that knowing yourself better, you can know God better as well, and thus permit God to indwell in the real you. David Benner’s great book The Gift of Being Yourself does a lot for the reader in that process; it is a deep book that I’ll read again this year. This is a concept which I hadn’t heard much about, and is very refreshing.
We were asked to write a personal faith narrative, framed by our life stories and events. In recounting my spiritual journey, I came to grips with my victories and my defeats, the times I’ve accepted the call of Christ and the times I’ve turned and gone my own way, and the pain it caused myself and others. I remembered and honored the ‘God things’ I’ve experienced: the events and moments in my life when I have truly seen or felt God and his grace and mercy, and the Holy Spirit act on my behalf. It is my story of God ‘meeting me where I’m at’ in my personal relationship with him, and it has great value to me. Nothing can take away my experiences of God acting personally in my life, leading me back into a right, fruitful, and intimate relationship with him, one step at a time. My VP3 brothers shared our stories with each other, and grew closer to each other in the process.
VP3 emphasized mentoring, both having a mentor during VP3 and becoming a mentor for others. A Christian mentor is more than an accountability partner; a mentor is brother or sister in Christ who listens to the song from your soul. A good mentor is a trusted and close friend, one you can bear your heart to, your spiritual and heartfelt victories, defeats, hang-ups, bitterness, questions, doubts, and one who will challenge you and teach you how to move forward, and to mentor others as well. I believe mentoring is a key to increasing the number of committed and discipled Christians in our nation and world. A united community of mentoring and mentored Christians will produce a harvest the church and the Lord will rejoice over.
The last stage of VP3, Functional Foundations of Leadership, is one I’m still grappling with. What habits and characteristics does a successful Christian leader have? What will I do to ensure I grow into and remain an emerging Christian Leader?
These last two paragraphs give a short version of a couple of the changes I've had as a result of VP3.
The FMA – the flight mode annunciator, was a panel which displayed the armed and active modes of the autopilot and flight director. On a more modern EFIS aircraft the flight modes are shown just above the attitude indication, so in result, this separate panel actually increased our work scan: it was another instrument to include in our ‘scan’.
Hand flying the jet was interesting. Lag in the control response was to be expected, especially in pitch. In pitch the force felt in the control yoke was springy and spongy, light at first but it increased at a non-linear rate. There was a large null spot where the aircraft was trimmed out, where movement of the yoke seemed to not affect the pitch attitude of the aircraft at all. It was light in roll, and the yoke was spring centered back to neutral when released. When the yoke reached 5 degrees deflection, the roll spoilers deployed, and the roll rate increased suddenly. The rudder was the only surface powered hydraulically.
Click here for a good link to a few pictures of Vanguard's Md-80's. My first landing in one, with my hands on the controls was a doozey, oh it was! Seeing in my peripheral vision my Check Airman Captain reaching for yoke during flare is not a good thing. I had already increased back pressure during the flare, and didn’t know just where the ground was, so to speak. I was trying to land it ‘like the simulator’, how I had been told. But the sight picture out the window was totally different than I was used to, as at touchdown the deck height above the ground in the ‘80’ is quite a few feet higher than in the 1900. I knew this, and tried to compensate for it. Observing the plane sink the last ten feet down to the runway surface is a useful clue while landing, but it takes a while to get used to the sight picture in order to discern this. In a long jet the nose is increasing in pitch angle as you land, this mitigates the sink sight clues somewhat. The radio altimeter had called out our height above the ground from 50 feet down in ten foot increments. Well, it was supposed to be ten foot increments. “50-30-20-10” bam! Somewhere far behind me (72 feet or thereabouts) the tires hit like a body part hitting furniture while walking in slumber in a friend’s dark house. We didn’t bounce, I realized as I perceived the cockpit bulkhead shaking behind us in a wave of reverberation from the point of impact. Ugh, oh well. Chuck, my Check Airman, didn’t ask for a hard landing inspection after we both gave it a good once over during the post flight inspection. That was good, and I hoped I could redeem myself. The next few landings went better, fortunately!
There are similarities between learning and flying a new and unfamiliar airplane and growing spiritually in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Apprehension, anxiety, excitement/joy, and exhilaration can and will be experienced from one moment to the next, side by side. A classic phrase from aviation (the movie Top Gun) is "highway to the danger zone", and the similar phrase in Christianity describing spiritual growth, especially in mission, is to "get out of your comfort zone". A sense of purpose, mission, and challenge that each arena has can help provide motivation to fulfill the hopes and goals presented. Most of all, learning a new plane or growing in Christ isn’t best done alone; one is much more productive being engaged with the intimate personal assistance, teaching, and learning involved in each endeavor.
In ‘A better Vantage Point, Part I’ in August I wrote a little about the Vantage Point 3 program, a discipleship course my wife and I were in last year at our church. I’ll share with you now the details of the course. In part III (there’s a part III? ;) I’ll share the changes I’ve experienced as a result.
VP3 (for short) has helped to spark a process of renewal in both of our lives and in our marriage. Growing in Christ can be difficult; we’ve learned again that growing pains aren’t only for children. As Christians, it’s often easy to feel comfortable where we are in our spiritual lives. VP3 is a ministry based in Sioux Falls, SD, and their purpose is to develop emerging leaders for the church, to call and enable Christians to become who they are destined to be in Christ Jesus. It’s much like a discipleship group, but it operates a little differently. Our group of five men and nine women, plus our facilitator/associate Pastor, met together for an hour and a half each week. The sessions presented challenging thoughts and questions, and involved personal introspection and sharing from all of us.
The first stage of VP3 was called Biblical Foundations of Leadership. From a scripturally personal standpoint, I became reacquainted with my Christian foundations, and articulated my own personal biblical values. It was a confrontational experience to consider the values I say I have verses how I actually live them out. I was asked to consider and draft a personal biblical mandate.
As a class, we read four books. My two favorites were In the Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen, and The Gift of Being Yourself by David Benner. Nouwen has a unique but sound angle to our relationship with Jesus and how he can authentically be lived out in our lives. One big concept Nouwen expresses is that we should seek to be irrelevant to other people, not relevant, as one would assume. Why? Because as we are irrelevant to others while in relationship with them, they see and receive us as vulnerable, naked, and stripped to the core of our being. A being which has Christ lived out of us in Love, sacrifice, suffering, and serving others purely, just as Jesus did when he walked the earth. They can only respond in two ways: receive us as we are in Christ’s Love, or reject us.
Knowing God was of course a focus of VP3, but more emphasis was put on knowing your self, in that knowing yourself better, you can know God better as well, and thus permit God to indwell in the real you. David Benner’s great book The Gift of Being Yourself does a lot for the reader in that process; it is a deep book that I’ll read again this year. This is a concept which I hadn’t heard much about, and is very refreshing.
We were asked to write a personal faith narrative, framed by our life stories and events. In recounting my spiritual journey, I came to grips with my victories and my defeats, the times I’ve accepted the call of Christ and the times I’ve turned and gone my own way, and the pain it caused myself and others. I remembered and honored the ‘God things’ I’ve experienced: the events and moments in my life when I have truly seen or felt God and his grace and mercy, and the Holy Spirit act on my behalf. It is my story of God ‘meeting me where I’m at’ in my personal relationship with him, and it has great value to me. Nothing can take away my experiences of God acting personally in my life, leading me back into a right, fruitful, and intimate relationship with him, one step at a time. My VP3 brothers shared our stories with each other, and grew closer to each other in the process.
VP3 emphasized mentoring, both having a mentor during VP3 and becoming a mentor for others. A Christian mentor is more than an accountability partner; a mentor is brother or sister in Christ who listens to the song from your soul. A good mentor is a trusted and close friend, one you can bear your heart to, your spiritual and heartfelt victories, defeats, hang-ups, bitterness, questions, doubts, and one who will challenge you and teach you how to move forward, and to mentor others as well. I believe mentoring is a key to increasing the number of committed and discipled Christians in our nation and world. A united community of mentoring and mentored Christians will produce a harvest the church and the Lord will rejoice over.
The last stage of VP3, Functional Foundations of Leadership, is one I’m still grappling with. What habits and characteristics does a successful Christian leader have? What will I do to ensure I grow into and remain an emerging Christian Leader?
These last two paragraphs give a short version of a couple of the changes I've had as a result of VP3.
These days I have a more central and singular purpose in my life, and it all boils down to Jesus. Sure, my wife and children provide deep meaning and satisfaction to me, but my best person is in relationship with them through Christ. Ultimately, he gives me the deepest meaning, purpose, and satisfaction I have in my life. It sounds crazy, but it’s true.
As much as I love flying a jet through the sky, I sincerely don’t think I would keep doing it if it wasn’t for God sustaining me through the hard times of struggle and sacrifice. Doing it in Christ, through Christ, and for Christ helps me to continue packing for a five day trip away from my wife and family, with a half day commute on both sides.
As much as I love flying a jet through the sky, I sincerely don’t think I would keep doing it if it wasn’t for God sustaining me through the hard times of struggle and sacrifice. Doing it in Christ, through Christ, and for Christ helps me to continue packing for a five day trip away from my wife and family, with a half day commute on both sides.
Praise our one holy and true God!
And thanks again for visiting my blog.
Friday, September 11, 2009
When September ends
You scraped it on something, or hit it accidentally. The reopened wound hurts; nerve synapses fire and deliver jabbing, wincing pain. Perhaps even blood and pus oozes, and tears flow, in a fresh remembrance of the injury. It’s gross and uncomfortable, and can illicit bitter questions, sadness, and anger anew. For many Americans, myself included.
Remembering the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks is like dealing with a scab that has trouble healing.
I’d like to commiserate with all Americans affected by the 9/11 attacks, especially those deeply affected in a personal way. This event of Biblical proportions has changed us and history significantly, forever.
By late summer of 2001 I had been a Captain for Great Lakes for six months, flying the Beechcraft 1900. I had just returned home from dropping off my precious one year old daughter at her day care at a quaint farmplace a few miles from town. My lovely wife was working a nursing shift at the hospital. We had moved to northwestern Iowa a few months earlier, and I turned on the Today show to check the weather. I was going to pack and drive to Omaha, then fly to Denver to start a trip with Great Lakes.
Something didn’t look right with the picture of the World Trade Center in New York City; it had a huge, smoking gash in it, with towering flames licking the shiny steel beams. An eyewitness said a plane or missile had hit it, and on such a beautiful day. Immediately I knew it wasn’t done by a missile or a small plane, and got a very bad feeling. Moments later I, along with perhaps millions of other Americans, saw the other jetliner hit the second WTC on live TV.
At that moment I had a strong suspicion that I wasn’t going anywhere, and I knew that this event would change us all and change history. Over the next few hours I was reduced to screaming and pleading at the TV, my emotions pacing and ranging from anger, to anguish and sadness, to incredulousness, to helplessness, to resolve, to prayerfulness, and back again. Not one, but two large airliners had been hijacked, and flown on suicide missions into the WTC buildings. Then, like a living nightmare, the hits kept coming, first the Pentagon, then what next? United 93 impacted a field in Pennsylvania after passengers revolted (United 93’s CVR confirms the hijacker pilot intentionally did this).
One big question of the moment I had wasn’t why, but how: “We’re ‘the greatest country in the world’, how could this happen? We have the FBI, CIA, NSA, INS, FAA, Interpol, all their technology, and everything else, and we have the mightiest Air Force on earth, how could this happen?”
My other big question of the moment wasn’t whether the WTC’s will come down, but when. I’m still confounded as to why the WTC security told occupants of the second building to return to their offices before their building was hit. Many more lives could have been saved if they hadn’t done so.
I called my relatives and friends, and Great Lakes crew scheduling. Crew scheduling told me to sit tight, my trip wasn’t cancelled yet. With the smart and soon move of the FAA to ground ALL aircraft, it became very apparent that I wasn’t going anywhere on this day. I was blessed by this; I would’ve absolutely hated getting stuck somewhere (in our great country) sitting with the airplane, and away from my family, for three days until the sky opened up again. My wife would’ve hated it too.
That night churches all across the country, as well as in own our town, held prayer vigils. I didn’t attend any but I did pray, and afterwards more questions surfaced in me, on top of the most painful ones I had. Self centered and selfish I’ll admit they were, but I felt they were ones I had to consider. What will happen to the major airlines now, and their hiring plans? Will I be able to advance to a better job soon? When will the airlines fly again, and what kind of security restrictions will be in place? Will I have a secure, financially rewarding, or safe future in airline flying?
I was flying for Great Lakes again after about five days. The frequencies were very quiet, traffic was mostly non-existent, and the mood was very somber. The attack, and the responses our country had to them, was the deserved focus we had for the next few weeks, months, and years.
The scale of the human tragedy was on a scale we couldn’t comprehend. After it was all boiled down, a resolve for vengeance and justice, and a desire for the security of our people were left. And in large measure, our country’s military and government has taken on that task and performed it fairly well, for good or bad, depending on your politics and beliefs. There certainly have been missteps, and maybe a misplaced war, but I am not going to address that here, this time. This is for the victims, and for personally dealing with the aftermath. This was such a large event of terrorism that all of us are victims, in a sense.
In our peaceful, ‘Christian’, Americanized, materialized, and comforting culture it’s difficult to understand why a group of extremist Islamic terrorists were willing to train for and carry out these despicable terrorist attacks. Another difficult thing to understand is the fact that there are Americans among us who believe untenable, unsound conspiracy theories about these attacks.
And these aren’t your garden variety theories like ‘In different ways the government and Military left the door wide open to these terrorists to attack us, so we could justify the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and control their countries, control the oil and gas there, and attempt to foster peace, democracy, and capitalism in the region’.
These untenable and unsound theories surround the technicalities of the attacks, and don’t have a sound scientific footing. Many of them border on the absurd: the airliners were flown into the buildings under separate radio control (the pilots were unable to overtake control of their own airliners); the Pentagon attack was a missile, not an airliner; United 93 was shot down, not crashed intentionally by the hijackers; the WTC’s had explosives planted inside their structures, otherwise they wouldn’t have fallen; WTC 7 was imploded by the NYFD (even though it was damaged heavily by falling WTC tower debris and had a large interior fire from an emergency diesel generator fire which had heavily damaged the building); and the craziest one of all: the planes didn’t hit the buildings, it was all trick video photography, and the bombs placed inside all the buildings only made it look this way (this would require a huge media conspiracy).
Popular mechanics magazine and National Geographic magazine (Nat Geo channel) have two great websites which refute these claims with solid scientific evidence. Click on the links to check them out, to help you counter the next ‘Truther’ who sits next to you on the airplane.
God won’t answer all the questions of why this happened, he doesn’t work that way. God wants us to desire him, to yearn to follow him, to have a personal spiritual relationship with him. Answering all of our questions (which diminish in importance when compared to his desire for us to have true, eternal life with him and through him) is not his first priority, having a right personal spiritual relationship with him is. Here is a site by Reverend Mark D. Roberts which has some reflections on 9/11 and faith.
However, God can and will give you peace about it, ‘a peace which surpasses all understanding’ from (Philippians 4:7). The ‘lover of my soul’ can also calm your fears and help you to walk in a peaceful field. God is sovereign; we don’t know his ways or his plans, and if we did we might not understand them. He does have a plan for your future, for my future, and for the future of our world and country, and his plans won’t be thwarted.
If you were directly or deeply affected by the 9/11 attacks, you have my sympathies. In Matthew 5:4 Jesus said “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted”.
From Psalm 34:4 and 34:18, the Father of us all delivers comfort: 4 “I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears (NKJV); 18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted. He rescues those whose spirits are crushed.” (NLT).
There is a plan, and Romans 8:28-39 gives more insight and comfort to believers: “ 28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (NIV)
To be sure, my stance is that no, we don’t know why God permits such great pain and evil to be present in this world, but that he is our great comforter and peacegiver. Being open to and interested in the message and the mystery of the gospel is a first step not to making sense of these events, but to gaining a greater peace about it.
Remembering the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks is like dealing with a scab that has trouble healing.
I’d like to commiserate with all Americans affected by the 9/11 attacks, especially those deeply affected in a personal way. This event of Biblical proportions has changed us and history significantly, forever.
By late summer of 2001 I had been a Captain for Great Lakes for six months, flying the Beechcraft 1900. I had just returned home from dropping off my precious one year old daughter at her day care at a quaint farmplace a few miles from town. My lovely wife was working a nursing shift at the hospital. We had moved to northwestern Iowa a few months earlier, and I turned on the Today show to check the weather. I was going to pack and drive to Omaha, then fly to Denver to start a trip with Great Lakes.
Something didn’t look right with the picture of the World Trade Center in New York City; it had a huge, smoking gash in it, with towering flames licking the shiny steel beams. An eyewitness said a plane or missile had hit it, and on such a beautiful day. Immediately I knew it wasn’t done by a missile or a small plane, and got a very bad feeling. Moments later I, along with perhaps millions of other Americans, saw the other jetliner hit the second WTC on live TV.
At that moment I had a strong suspicion that I wasn’t going anywhere, and I knew that this event would change us all and change history. Over the next few hours I was reduced to screaming and pleading at the TV, my emotions pacing and ranging from anger, to anguish and sadness, to incredulousness, to helplessness, to resolve, to prayerfulness, and back again. Not one, but two large airliners had been hijacked, and flown on suicide missions into the WTC buildings. Then, like a living nightmare, the hits kept coming, first the Pentagon, then what next? United 93 impacted a field in Pennsylvania after passengers revolted (United 93’s CVR confirms the hijacker pilot intentionally did this).
One big question of the moment I had wasn’t why, but how: “We’re ‘the greatest country in the world’, how could this happen? We have the FBI, CIA, NSA, INS, FAA, Interpol, all their technology, and everything else, and we have the mightiest Air Force on earth, how could this happen?”
My other big question of the moment wasn’t whether the WTC’s will come down, but when. I’m still confounded as to why the WTC security told occupants of the second building to return to their offices before their building was hit. Many more lives could have been saved if they hadn’t done so.
I called my relatives and friends, and Great Lakes crew scheduling. Crew scheduling told me to sit tight, my trip wasn’t cancelled yet. With the smart and soon move of the FAA to ground ALL aircraft, it became very apparent that I wasn’t going anywhere on this day. I was blessed by this; I would’ve absolutely hated getting stuck somewhere (in our great country) sitting with the airplane, and away from my family, for three days until the sky opened up again. My wife would’ve hated it too.
That night churches all across the country, as well as in own our town, held prayer vigils. I didn’t attend any but I did pray, and afterwards more questions surfaced in me, on top of the most painful ones I had. Self centered and selfish I’ll admit they were, but I felt they were ones I had to consider. What will happen to the major airlines now, and their hiring plans? Will I be able to advance to a better job soon? When will the airlines fly again, and what kind of security restrictions will be in place? Will I have a secure, financially rewarding, or safe future in airline flying?
I was flying for Great Lakes again after about five days. The frequencies were very quiet, traffic was mostly non-existent, and the mood was very somber. The attack, and the responses our country had to them, was the deserved focus we had for the next few weeks, months, and years.
The scale of the human tragedy was on a scale we couldn’t comprehend. After it was all boiled down, a resolve for vengeance and justice, and a desire for the security of our people were left. And in large measure, our country’s military and government has taken on that task and performed it fairly well, for good or bad, depending on your politics and beliefs. There certainly have been missteps, and maybe a misplaced war, but I am not going to address that here, this time. This is for the victims, and for personally dealing with the aftermath. This was such a large event of terrorism that all of us are victims, in a sense.
In our peaceful, ‘Christian’, Americanized, materialized, and comforting culture it’s difficult to understand why a group of extremist Islamic terrorists were willing to train for and carry out these despicable terrorist attacks. Another difficult thing to understand is the fact that there are Americans among us who believe untenable, unsound conspiracy theories about these attacks.
And these aren’t your garden variety theories like ‘In different ways the government and Military left the door wide open to these terrorists to attack us, so we could justify the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and control their countries, control the oil and gas there, and attempt to foster peace, democracy, and capitalism in the region’.
These untenable and unsound theories surround the technicalities of the attacks, and don’t have a sound scientific footing. Many of them border on the absurd: the airliners were flown into the buildings under separate radio control (the pilots were unable to overtake control of their own airliners); the Pentagon attack was a missile, not an airliner; United 93 was shot down, not crashed intentionally by the hijackers; the WTC’s had explosives planted inside their structures, otherwise they wouldn’t have fallen; WTC 7 was imploded by the NYFD (even though it was damaged heavily by falling WTC tower debris and had a large interior fire from an emergency diesel generator fire which had heavily damaged the building); and the craziest one of all: the planes didn’t hit the buildings, it was all trick video photography, and the bombs placed inside all the buildings only made it look this way (this would require a huge media conspiracy).
Popular mechanics magazine and National Geographic magazine (Nat Geo channel) have two great websites which refute these claims with solid scientific evidence. Click on the links to check them out, to help you counter the next ‘Truther’ who sits next to you on the airplane.
God won’t answer all the questions of why this happened, he doesn’t work that way. God wants us to desire him, to yearn to follow him, to have a personal spiritual relationship with him. Answering all of our questions (which diminish in importance when compared to his desire for us to have true, eternal life with him and through him) is not his first priority, having a right personal spiritual relationship with him is. Here is a site by Reverend Mark D. Roberts which has some reflections on 9/11 and faith.
However, God can and will give you peace about it, ‘a peace which surpasses all understanding’ from (Philippians 4:7). The ‘lover of my soul’ can also calm your fears and help you to walk in a peaceful field. God is sovereign; we don’t know his ways or his plans, and if we did we might not understand them. He does have a plan for your future, for my future, and for the future of our world and country, and his plans won’t be thwarted.
If you were directly or deeply affected by the 9/11 attacks, you have my sympathies. In Matthew 5:4 Jesus said “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted”.
From Psalm 34:4 and 34:18, the Father of us all delivers comfort: 4 “I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears (NKJV); 18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted. He rescues those whose spirits are crushed.” (NLT).
There is a plan, and Romans 8:28-39 gives more insight and comfort to believers: “ 28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (NIV)
To be sure, my stance is that no, we don’t know why God permits such great pain and evil to be present in this world, but that he is our great comforter and peacegiver. Being open to and interested in the message and the mystery of the gospel is a first step not to making sense of these events, but to gaining a greater peace about it.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
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.
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.
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