Trusting Him in All Things

But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.  They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.  It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green.  It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.  

Jeremiah 17:7-8

Trusting my instruments to guide me to the runway that is just a couple of miles ahead.

 

In my time flying in northern Canada, just about every summer you’ll come across at least a certain number of forest fires and smoke. It’s inevitable considering the entire area we generally fly over is covered in dense forest.

Some years are worse than others with certain areas getting hit hard. This year, was certainly the worst I’ve experienced, as I’m sure many of you reading this would agree. 

It didn’t seem to matter where you lived, if you were in Canada or the USA, at some point this summer you probably stepped outside to a yellow haze obscuring the sun and that familiar “camp-fire” scent in the air.

The smoke itself doesn’t preclude us from flying, but the reduced visibility that comes along with it can make things a little more challenging. Instead of flying “VFR” or via Visual Flight Rules, we need to fly “IFR” or via Instrument Flight Rules. In this case, you’re no longer flying and navigating the plane based on the horizon and geographical features that you can see out the window, but rather based on the information provided to you from the instrumentation in the plane.

When there is no frame of reference for what’s happening outside the airplane because you’re enveloped in cloud or heavy smoke, you have no choice but to rely on the information from your instruments.

This sounds simple enough, but every pilot knows (or at least is taught) that what our instruments are telling us can wildly contradict what we feel or “know” is happening with the airplane. When I can’t see outside, my body can be absolutely convinced that the plane is heavily banked to one side in a dive, but my instruments are telling me that I’m in straight and level flight, or vice versa. 

In our flight training, we’re taught to trust our instruments and not to rely on our feelings. That tends to go against our natural instinct, and can be a little frightening the first few times you experience it. However, it is absolutely necessary for the safe operation of the aircraft. To do otherwise is at your own peril.  Over time, though, as you gain more experience, trusting your instruments begins to become second nature.

The new instrument panel in LAMP’s Piper Lance came in very handy this summer with all of the IFR flying that was necessary.

 

A friend of mine has told me that he likes to compare trusting our instruments while flying IFR to trusting in God and His plans. We may not be able to see what’s up ahead or where things are headed, but we place our trust in God that He will safely navigate us to where we need to go.

I can’t express the number of times in my life that I’ve had to place my trust in God when I didn’t know where life was headed. The most vivid example for me, early on, was when I decided to follow God’s call to serve on the mission field.  I was terrified and  wasn’t sure how things would work out, but God in His provision, led me to where He wanted me, sometimes miraculously opening doors along the way.

Even now, as I write this, I don’t know what the future holds, but I’m able to trust that God will continue to guide and provide as He has done all along the way. Much like the instruments in our airplane, the information from God is accurate and reliable and He’s proven that to me time and time again. Trusting God now, after all these years, though sometimes still difficult, has become easier because of His faithfulness and reliability.

Certainly, there’s days I like to be able to see outside and enjoy God’s creation from 10,000 feet, seeing exactly where I am and where I’m going. Sometimes, though, we just need to continue flying through the smoke, trusting that our instruments will get us there safely.