I was having a chat with mom yesterday morning on something. At a certain moment she made a remark which caused some extra blood pressure into my veins and some harsh words to come to mind… I throttled back my impulses making great use of instant deliveries of God-sent patience. Somehow, I was able to see the end of the chat1, a beautiful end that did not involve memories of hurting words but sincere joy and peace and closeness sprung from victories over worldly impulses. I reckon it’s called faith. It is faith that I exercise whenever I refuse to give an instant feedback based on what I see, hear, feel, knowing for sure that something good is going to happen if I do so.
What came out of a potentially disastrous discussion with mum was a somewhat fury provoking remark followed by a plain calm chat. The “maneuver” yielded a successful result, by His grace!
Yes, I love this word, “maneuver”, especially now as I prepare to write the “planes” part of the article…
I like this image, especially the truth in it: planes are hard and heavy, air is soft and light. However, if properly used, the wind moves tons of steel. Well, the wind was used. Man learned to harness it long before plane contrails patched the sky. Now the wind that blew into sails for millenniums is not the same as the ”wind” that lifts and moves thousands of aircrafts today, since their movement through the air is assured by their dynamics not by the wind’s dynamics. Anyhow, the oxymoron statement I made above stays true. The plane is heavy, the air is light (apparently). The plane is hard (at least in that it has a shape of it’s own, hard to alter), the air is highly malleable, fluid. Yet, the air lifts the plane and allows for different maneuvers once the speed of the plain exceeds a required minimum. However, given the fluidity of the air (among many other factors), a pilot must be very well trained before actually flying a plane. Perhaps the most peculiar “feature” of piloting is the delay between the pilot’s commands and their result. Much of the pilot’s training has to do with gaining the certainty that, while flying a plane, the maneuver that he applies in a certain situation yields the intended result only after some time2. Does this ring a bell? Turning the plane several degrees is pretty fast while it is still on the ground but takes up to a few minutes during flight. Once the plane is sufficiently banked, a pilot knows that everything he has to do until the plane is completely turned to the new direction is wait. This confidence that the plane will obey, even if slower than a car, takes some training.
Apply the command an wait. In other words, do the right thing and wait. Several things that define “right” for a pilot are perhaps a flight manual, some physics, some common sense and of course his confidence-giving flight experience. The same holds for life. There is a manual, the Bible, which is still relevant and full of practical wisdom so necessary for everyday living. There’s the Holy Spirit that gives peace when life heads in the right direction. There are God filled friends that will always lovingly guide along the way. There’s also the faith coming from a life lived in obedience to God.
Although I knew these things, my relationship with mum was lacking love and faith. Love to patiently wait for the result, faith not to act based on what I see/hear. Both come from above and can be enhanced by exercise or training. I believe I had them ever since I surrendered my life into my loving Creator’s hands, but this surrendering act was not complete and is yet to be so. My relationship with mum (and many others) still lacks love and faith but it’s getting better as I give more of my life back to Him. Nothing abstract, nothing mystical. He is real and the effects of my dependence of Him are real. A rock solid proof is yesterday morning’s successful maneuver! To the best Flight Trainer be all praise and glory! Amen.
- I refuse to call it “fight” or even “argue” since it lacked the attitudes, the words, the gestures and so on. [↩]
- It is known that the greater the plane is, the slower its feedback to the pilot’s commands. The same is true for ships since water is also a fluid; air is however more fluid than water and it suits the allegory better [↩]
No Comments