Paul, speaking about people in the last days, says in 2 Timothy 3, they are always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. We can Google anything. We have a lot of information, but we really are not acknowledging the truth, as the scripture says.
I’d like to share ten things I learned on an airplane. It’s a picture that will help us live an intentional life.
- We have less control than we think we do.
For those of us who have experienced turbulence, we tend to grab a hold of the armrests, as though by grabbing those armrests we are now in control and the plane is going to settle down. But if we believe what the scripture teaches, we know the ultimate outcome is in God’s hands.
- Do what we can and leave the outcome to God.
The scripture is clear that we are to be busy about the Father’s business. We are to live our lives with intentionality, but sometimes we think because we are intentional, we can control the outcome, but ultimately, we can’t.
- We can feel alone even in a crowd of people.
How many times have we been on a long flight and never known the person sitting next to us? We didn’t take the time to talk to them or really get to know what was going on in their lives. It is important for us to assume, even though we are on an airplane, that the person seated next to us, or the person living next to us in our neighborhood, needs the hope of Christ today.
- We wear masks in airplanes.
People need to just be real. It’s important to talk to one another about what’s going on in our lives and what we are experiencing.
- Everything in life has a starting point and a stopping point.
Life has a cycle to it, and yet we fight it. One of the goals we should have in life, like a good airplane ride, is to have a good landing.
- We have to get along with people to get along in life.
Have you ever sat in the middle seat on a plane? We get in the middle seat, and then have this battle over the armrests. It’s quite an opportunity to get along with people.
- We drag too much stuff with us through life.
There’s a 50-pound limit for each checked bag on a flight. We fill our bags to the limit because we have to have all our stuff. One of my biggest challenges is clutter and yet, it’s important to live an intentional, clutter-free life.
- Delays happen.
Scripture says: “A hope deferred makes the heart sick” (Proverbs 13:12). Whenever we face resistance, or delays in life, a loser will quit, where a winner will continue to trust God. A winner will keep doing the next right one thing and allow that delay to become an opportunity to build character in their lives.
- Everyone gets a seat on the plane, but every seat isn’t the same.
We live in a culture today where we want everything to be the same, but even on an airplane, everything is not the same. It’s more important to have the right destination than to have the right seat.
- We must be on the right path if we intend to arrive at the right destination.
Sometimes we get on the wrong plane and find ourselves going in the wrong direction. It’s really important for us not only to get on the right plane, but also to know why we are on that plane, or why we want to get to that destination.
