We Only Need One Engine
Trusting the Pilot - Trusting Jesus
A few years ago, I boarded a plane from Orlando to Dallas for AdvoCare Success School, a big company event to train and encourage Distributors. Every year I looked forward to this trip because there were always motivating speakers and big surprises! This year was no exception.
Now, I’m a by-the-book, get there 2 hours ahead of time kind of guy. I happen to be married to a why show up early and sit at the gate for an hour-and-a-half when you could use it as an opportunity to sprint and get some cardio in kind of girl. But, on this day, I was flying by myself, so I was there in plenty of time to see my plane pull into the gate. Through the window, it looked like a perfectly sound Southwest jet!
It came time to board, and I was group A. If you’ve never flown Southwest, you need to know a few things: first, there are no assigned seats (at least not yet). Second, you are able to check into your flight exactly 24 hours before it is scheduled to depart, and when you check in, you are given your boarding group and number. Third, there are 3 boarding groups, A, B, & C.
People in the C boarding group get on the plane last. These are the people who are complete slackers who forgot to check in until they got to the airport and realized they were flying somewhere. You can tell who these folks are because they are wearing pajamas, knit caps, and Crocs.
The B boarding group is made up of people who are all mad at themselves for not being in the A boarding group. I’ve been there and it’s not fun! More than likely they set an alarm to remind themselves to check in, but they put PM instead of AM. You can tell these people because they look so sad as they stand nearby while the A group lines up to board.
Then there’s the A group. What you need to know about the A group is that these are the most put together, disciplined, prideful (and possibly rich - you can pay to be A - capitalism baby!) people on the plane! We (I say we for obvious reasons) are the ones who set multiple check-in alarms the day before and would rather miss our child’s high school graduation ceremony than forget to check-in for our flight as soon as check-in becomes available. It’s possible we might even start clicking the check-in button over and over again 5 minutes before we are technically able to, just in case there’s glitch in the system that lets us do it!
So, I boarded the plane in the A group, picked out the perfect window seat on the starboard side. I literally pick a seat based that will give me the greatest chance to see my house. I just think that’s cool for some reason.
I settled in while the rest of the people boarded. Once the pitiful C folks made their way to their middle seats (bunch of losers), the front door was closed and the flight attendants start their little “this plane might crash and if we think that might happen, we have some things you can keep busy with before you die” speech.
While that was happening we all felt the slight jolt of the plane being pushed backwards. Everything seemed pretty normal until we felt the plane pulled forward again, back into the gate.
The pilot came on the intercom. “Hey folks! Sorry for the delay, but we have a sensor for one of our engines that’s not functioning right, so we are going to get it checked out. This will probably take about 20 minutes.”
Great! I’m glad they were being so diligent before we were hurled through the sky at 600 mph. We sat there for the 20 minutes or so. Then, we felt the backing up jolt again. But, just like last time, we pulled forward back to the gate.
“Hey everyone. We are still having problems with that sensor. We need to figure out what’s going on. Sorry for the delay.”
And there we sat for about 20 more minutes. I think everyone on the plane was cool with them getting this sensor thing taken care of so nobody was complaining.
I was just sitting there looking out the window at other planes who had all their engines working properly when our pilot came back on the intercom with an unexpected and unsettling message.
“Alright folks! That sensor is still not working, but we can make it to Dallas with just one engine, so we are gonna go ahead and give it a shot.”
At this point, all us passengers had no choice of what we are going to do. We were all stuck on the plane, the door was shut, and the pilot was apparently pretty confident we were going to get to Dallas regardless of any engine issues. We backed out again, and this time turned toward the runway for take-off. I’m happy to let you know both engines worked great!
That story makes me think about trust. I had to trust that the pilot knew what he was talking about, and that the plane would get where it was going even if I didn’t understand everything about the engines and sensors and what kinds of things pilots are supposed to or not supposed to tell the passengers.
It’s one thing to trust a pilot, but what about trusting Jesus? I mean, do I have to know everything before I step out in faith? Do I have to understand the whole Bible before I teach it to others? Do I have to feel comfortable talking to people about Jesus and sharing my faith before I open my mouth and share the greatest love story ever told? If Jesus is my pilot and he’s commanded me to go and make disciples, then shouldn’t I just do it regardless of what I fully understand!?
What about you? What’s keeping you from trusting Jesus fully? What’s keeping you from stepping out in faith into the uncomfortable? What’s keeping you from showing up in church, showing up in the world, showing up in people’s lives and being salt & light?
We were going to Dallas that day and I’m glad we were. I’m so thankful I had a pilot that knew a lot more about airplanes than I did. When it comes to life, Jesus knows a lot more about it than we do. He’s the creator and sustainer of it all! He promises to redeem that which is broken and restore his Kingdom! We should trust him, obey him, and experience the abundant life he offers!