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Showing posts with label Flight Metaphors. Show all posts

Controlled Flight Into Terrain

Posted in Flight Metaphors, Nick's Posts, Sanctification By Nick Smith 0 comments

On the evening of July 16, 1999, John F. Kennedy, Jr. was piloting a small aircraft with his wife and sister-in-law as passengers. At some point during the flight, visibility decreased, Kennedy became disoriented, and he crashed the plane into the ocean. All three people on board died.

His crash was a clear example of Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT). CFIT is when there is a perfectly good aircraft and a perfectly good pilot, but the pilot unintentionally flies the aircraft into terrain. According to aircraft manufacturer Boeing, CFIT is the number one cause of fatal aircraft accidents. In Kennedy’s case, this occurred because he became spatially disoriented (i.e. he lost track of where the ground was). Kennedy was a certified pilot, but he was only certified to fly as long as he maintained visual contact with the surface; he could not fly in clouds or anything that would require him to fly solely by reference to the flight instruments.

Insert Christian metaphor.

It occurred to me that, as Christians, we are in danger of our own type of Controlled Flight Into Terrain. We are flying along in the world and there is only one source that we should depend on to tell us which way is up – God. All other sources lead us toward spatial disorientation. And to maintain control, we have to maintain constant vigilance. We have to look at, trust, and use our flight instruments (a.k.a. the Bible and the Holy Spirit). We are still in control of the aircraft and can fly however we want, but the flight instruments tell us the best way to fly.

Let’s be honest. This is hard. When the world is telling us this way is up and God is telling us the other way is up, it’s not nearly as easy as it sounds to decide who is right. Truthfully, I think I usually pick somewhere in the middle and justify it as being okay. And it probably is okay – for a short time. But it also means that my course has changed. I’m no longer flying in the direction the flight instruments are telling me I should. Over time, these small changes are going to mount up. I’m going to find myself further and further from where I should be until I either run out of fuel or crash.

This is CFIT and it is happening all the time. Maybe it isn’t always getting to the crash part, but we’re all get off course to some extent. The only way to fix it is to develop a habit of frequently looking at our flight instruments and making necessary adjustments. In a nutshell, this is sanctification (see Ephesians 5:26-27).

Sidenote:

I also thought of another appropriate CFIT metaphor. New pilots (i.e. new Christians) may be very intelligent, well put-together people, but they are still new to flying. And just as we wouldn’t ask a new pilot to immediately fly into clouds, we shouldn’t ask new Christians to immediately feast on spiritual meat. They need to start with milk (see 1 Peter 2:2-3). We are all in different stages of learning to trust the flight instruments, so we should not begrudge those who are new and struggling. If anything, we should offer our support.

Adjust Your Sails

Posted in Flight Metaphors, Holy Spirit, Nick's Posts By Nick Smith 1 comments

I’ve decided to take a new direction this week. Instead of continuing with my “The Christian Path” series, I’d like to take an opportunity to talk about the Holy Spirit, which I’ve been thinking a lot about lately.

The Holy Spirit is such a huge issue (and a largely ignored issue). It is amazing to me that one week after I posted the What is Sin? blog (which started my recent train of thought on the Holy Spirit), the pastor at my church started a series of sermons about - you guessed it - the Holy Spirit. One thing he shared today was about the vastness of the Holy Spirit. To illustrate, he shared a story about a man who came to visit the ocean. He was from a landlocked country and none of his people had ever seen the ocean, so he was astonished by how massive it was. He took a jar and bottled up some of the water. When someone asked him why he did this, he told them that nobody from his country had ever seen the ocean and he wanted to show it to them. The Holy Spirit is like this too. We can talk about Him (yes Him, not it), but there is so much to say and so much to learn that any discussion will be merely a jar in His ocean.

One thing the Holy Spirit is frequently compared to is the wind. As many of you know, I’ve recently started to pursue a career as a pilot. The wind is a big factor in flight, so I pay much closer attention to the wind now than I used to. Did you know that the wind has patterns? In any given geographical region, it often blows in the same general direction. For example, in Dallas, Texas, the wind often blows from South to North. This reflects the Spirit in the sense that He is often leading us in the same general direction. We can learn a great deal about His Will by reading the Word. The Bible provides excellent guidance as to the general direction that the wind of the Spirit flows.

But the wind doesn’t always flow in the same direction. Sometimes, for hours or days at a time, it will flow in either a perpendicular or opposite direction. So what can this teach us about the Spirit? The Word of God, although perfect, can only tell us the general direction that the wind will flow. It can offer important guidance, but it cannot tell us how to act in each and every situation of daily living. This is where the Spirit fills in the gap. And while the Word of God points towards God for the human race as a whole, the Holy Spirit always flows directly to God specifically for YOU. The wind of God’s Will may flow in a different direction for you than for your Christian brother or sister. This isn’t to say that there is more than one way to be saved. The one and only way remains Jesus Christ. But beyond salvation, God directs us to where He needs us via the Holy Spirit.

One important apparatus in aviation is the wind sock. It quickly and accurately tells a pilot how strong the wind is blowing and from which direction. This is extremely useful as it tells the pilot which direction he should take off or land.

Unfortunately, as Christians, we often think we know better than the Spirit. We want to take off and land to the North, but the wind is flowing the wrong direction, telling us we should take off and land to the South. So what do we often do? We walk up to the wind sock, physically turn it around, and then act as if that is the direction the wind is now flowing. But this doesn’t change anything but our perception of reality. The truth of the Spirit’s direction remains constant.

We need to learn to be sensitive to the wind of the Spirit and then realistic about our response. Let me share a quote that a friend of mine posted on Facebook today:

This holds an important lesson for us when dealing with the Holy Spirit. We shouldn’t complain about where He leads us and we shouldn’t expect Him to lead us in a direction that we would prefer. Rather, we should strive for a mature and realistic approach by adjusting our sails and flowing in the direction God is leading us.

What's Your Bible?

Posted in Bible, Flight Metaphors, Nick's Posts By Nick Smith 0 comments

Most of us have, at some point in our lives, been handed a document of some sort and told, “This is your Bible.” This happened to me recently when I purchased a copy of the Federal Aviation Regulations and my flight instructor told me that very thing. Obviously she didn’t mean that it is a literal Bible. Her point was that I should read it, study it, and learn it very well.

This saying is so common in American culture that it has become a cliché. But when my instructor said this, something occurred to me. We know what it means to treat something as our Bible, but how often do we treat THE Bible as our Bible? Oh sure, we all know somewhere deep down that we probably should, but our conviction stops there. We have our reasons. We’ll read it when things aren’t so hectic. We already know what it says (we think). And I have a personal theory that all of us have a subconscious fear of encountering the Word of God because we know that it will make us feel convicted and make us want to change. We’re afraid because we like being in control and reading the Bible is one step towards ceding control. But making THE Bible YOUR Bible is an essential part of a Christian’s walk with God.

Essential – Adjective. Absolutely necessary; indispensable.

Here’s what the Bible has to say about itself: “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” – Hebrews 4:12

I love the description of “living and active.” How often do we desperately want God to speak to us? Maybe we just need to make the time and effort to read what He is saying right now.

Also, in his “armor of God” metaphor, Paul describes the Word of God as “the sword of the spirit” (Ephesians 6:17). It is the Christian’s one and only offensive weapon. Without a sword, we are just standing in the midst of a battle allowing ourselves to be battered. I wouldn’t call that a useful soldier.

I’m not saying we all need to stop everything and read the Bible to the exclusion of doing anything else. But you’d be surprised how much God can speak when you read His Word just 15-30 minutes a day. Make the time. Make the effort. Get to know God.

Rods, Cones, and Shades of Gray

Posted in Flight Metaphors, love, Nick's Posts, Sin By Nick Smith 2 comments

In training to be a pilot, I’ve been learning some really cool stuff lately. One thing I’ve recently learned about is the human eye (we learn about this because it affects how we scan for traffic in the plane). Apparently, in the back of our eyeballs, there are two types of photoreceptors that affect what we see and how we see it. These are called the rods and the cones.

The rods are located on the outside of the central visual field. They detect changes in intensity of light, but do not detect color, only shades of gray.

The cones are the photoreceptors that detect color. They are located in both the center and outside of the central visual field. They require a lot of light to operate effectively. This is why objects at night lack color.

So why does this matter for Christianity? Well, it made me think of an analogy. When you lie to someone or are dishonest, where are you usually looking? For most of us, it would be a natural reaction to avoid eye contact. And if you were trying to hide from someone, what is one thing you might do? Turn out the lights. Now, which are the photoreceptors that are on the outside and are also the only photoreceptors that work at night? The rods. And what color do the rods see? Shades of gray.

When we are lying to God or hiding from God, we’re seeing things in shades of gray. It’s our way of justifying what we are doing. After all, we want the best of both worlds. We want to keep doing whatever it is that we know deep down God doesn’t want us to do, but we also want to keep God’s favor. So there is a shade of gray. And once things appear in shades of gray, it becomes both harder to look back at God (because doing so means owning up to our sin) and easier to look away (because sin is so enticing and we don’t want to have to face God after having sinned).

We all mess up. We’ve all sinned. And seasoned Christians know how hard it can be to approach God after we’ve sinned. It is tough, but it is necessary. But the thing is, God’s joy that you came back vastly out measures his disappointment that you left. We see this clearly throughout the Bible, especially in the story of the prodigal son. One verse that I like is Micah 7:19, “[God] will again have compassion on us; [he] will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depth of the sea.”

And hey, if you’re sticking with my analogy, once you look back at God, his light will make everything appear in full color again, and that is soooo much better than shades of gray.

Flying Without Our Shirt Tails

Posted in Dependence, Flight Metaphors, Nick's Posts By Nick Smith 0 comments

Today was a big day for me, so I’d like to share a metaphor from my day. I’m in the process of training to fly in order to eventually become a commercial airline pilot. Today I flew solo for the first time. It’s considered a milestone in pilot training and I’m pretty excited.

There is a tradition in aviation that after a student’s first solo flight, his instructor cuts off the back of his shirt. No, I am not messing with you; I’m serious. When I first learned about this tradition, I was as perplexed as you probably are now. In order to find out what the heck was behind this strange tradition, I went to my generation’s ultimate source of knowledge – Wikipedia. According to Wiki….

In American aviation lore, the traditional removal of a new pilot's shirt tail is a sign of the instructor's new confidence in his student after successful completion of the 1st solo flight. In the days of tandem trainers, the student sat in the front seat, with the instructor behind. As there were often no radios in these early days of aviation, the instructor would tug on the student pilot's shirttail to get his attention, and then yell in his ear. A successful first solo flight is an indication that the student can fly without the instructor ("instructor-less" flight). Hence, there is no longer a need for the shirt tail, and it is cut off by the (often) proud instructor, and sometimes displayed as a trophy.

The tradition made much more sense to me after the explanation. Now for the metaphor.

In today’s world, independence is a thing highly valued, and rightly so. Many of our big milestones are centered around independence: our first steps, our first time talking, getting our driver’s license, etc. The only thing we need to be careful of is taking the idea that independence is good and applying it to our relationship with God. In terms of our relationship with God, dependence is the quality to be valued. To borrow from the aviation tradition in kind of a corny way, God is trying to pull on our shirt tails to get our attention, but we aren’t listening. In fact, all too often many of us forget about our dependence on God and we’re flying without our shirt tails. Every day we need to remind ourselves who is really in control.

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” -- Galatians 2:20a