Trust the Pilot

I recently flew to Phoenix for a few days. Before take off the pilot did the usual thing where he gets on and talks about the flight, what to expect and all that. I hear him mention it would be a bit bumpy leaving Salt Lake and a bit bumpy landing in Phoenix. Now had this have been me a couple years ago I would have really panicked. But that’s not the me today, I’ll tell that story in another blog, another time.

The issue I’ve had with flying is I just don’t understand it. Yes, I get it’s science and all that but how a big metal tube stays in the sky going hundreds of miles per hour is just pretty amazing. To top it off, I don’t understand anything about the cockpit. If I ever had to land a plane, let alone even fly a plane, I just couldn’t do it. This is where we are all thankful I wasn’t called to be a pilot.

Back to my story. So of course I’m not looking forward to the bumps but I’m thinking it won’t be too bad. Getting off the runway took forever as it was a snowy day. They finally de-ice the plane and off we go. Things are fine, a bit bumpy but nothing terrible. I’m thinking how easy those bumps were and we were good to go now for a smooth rest of the flight. I was wrong. We are in the air about 20 minutes then it all went downhill from there. So. Many. Bumps. This is the part where I’m asking myself if turbulence can cause a plane crash.

If you know me, you know I’ll talk to anyone, any time and by now I’ve already made friends with a real nice lady named Wendy who does this flight from Salt Lake to Phoenix rather often. She wasn’t one bit afraid either I might add. But, now, instead of our conversation being about her line of work, I’m now telling her I’m not digging the turbulence.

I decide to look out the window and literally with every bump I see that the plane is kind of tipping from left to right. So with one bump you’d get a whole new view out the window then another bump, your view changed again. Now I’m all for flying but not this kind of flying. I look to the girl sitting by the window and she’s sound asleep. Let me just tell you how sleeping through turbulence makes zero sense to me.

The turbulence continues and I’m thinking to myself, “Let’s just land this thing. Find the nearest airport and land it.” I look again at the girl sitting next to me and think, “How is she sleeping through this?” So, before I tell you my next thought, I have to tell you how the girl sitting next to me reminds me of one of my dearest friends. Her name is Glory. Her dad was an incredible man and I absolutely loved him. He had a quiet and gentle confidence about him and I remember he always made me feel safe in all the adventures I ever joined his family on. To top it off, he was a pilot. From all that Glory ever told me about him as a pilot, he was a good one at that. So in that moment, I’m thinking of my friend Glory and I remember asking her one time if she was ever afraid to fly. She told me, “How could I be afraid with my dad as the pilot? That’s never really crossed my mind.”

Clearly I’m having a million thoughts going through my head so my attention goes back to the girl sleeping next to me. I look at her again and she is STILL SLEEPING and I’m STILL WONDERING if I’m going to die or not. I ponder waking her up so she can spend her last few minutes awake knowing the plane was going to crash. I don’t end up doing that but I do have a thought: “I wonder if her dad is the pilot? How else could you be sleeping through this? I bet if my dad was the pilot I’d be sleeping through this mess too.”

And it was in that bumpy, uncomfortable, turbulent moment, I hear that ever gentle voice say, “You can trust the pilot. You can trust Me.”

I’d like to say I had immediate peace as soon as I heard that. The peace came a few minutes later after I processed what God had just told me. You see, life gets bumpy at times. You can even say sometimes you hit unexpected turbulence in your journey. We often we fear things we don’t understand. We often question the bumps in the journey and if those bumps will still get us to our destination. Many times those bumps are what have to happen to get us from point A to point B. Those bumps have to happen to get us from the place we can no longer stay because we have to get to our destiny.

On that flight I had to remind myself to trust the actual pilot. But further than that, I had to remind myself to choose to trust God both for the flight and for my life. I’m on a journey to my destiny and these bumps aren’t going to kill me. In fact, they are only going to make me stronger for when I get to where He’s taking me.

So what did that bumpy flight to Phoenix teach me? It taught me that God can be trusted. Even when I don’t see or understand everything, He can be trusted. Every. Single. Time.

– Heather