Lessons From 30,000 Feet in the Air

If life is ever boring or you can’t figure something out or just in general if you want things to be different, I’ve always been told to look at things from a different perspective, and that’s exactly what happened to me today. I definitely got a new perspective on things, and I dare say that it was a higher perspective. 30,000 feet higher to be more specific.

(I’m on my way to Guatemala and was on a plane if you are curious). Anyways back to what I was saying.

On my flight today, I learned several things. I’m trying to figure out even where to start, so I guess I’ll just do them in the order I learned them.

First, I learned to trust more when God messes up my plans. My original flight got cancelled and I got all frustrated, but then we were able to schedule a flight to where my connection flight was scheduled to be and it ended up working that I would end up at the airport that I’m spending the night at around the same time that I would have gotten there with my other schedule. The nice part? I got to skip a connection flight, so it’s one less chance for my luggage to get lost. The better part? I ended up sitting next to a really nice woman that I chatted with on and off the whole flight. She was a Christian and when I told her about my internship, she was encouraging and I needed that. I would have never met her or gotten that encouragement with my original flight plans.

Second, I learned just how miniscule as people we are. As we flew up and I looked at the ground, the city looked like a kid’s play set. I could see roads and rivers, some houses and cars, but you know what I couldn’t see? I couldn’t see people. I knew they were there, hustling about their business, but I couldn’t see them. That’s what makes God’s love for us even more amazing- that He loves a species so tiny that they can’t even be see unless you are pretty close to the ground. He did everything for us, even though we are so tiny.

Third, I learned the value of God’s peace. The flight I was on was rather turbulent, so there was a lot of bouncing. I started to get a little motion sick, and I’ll admit, as I gazed out the window, I was feeling nervous. I didn’t like the bouncing and it made me uneasy. (I wasn’t the only one, either. A lot of people were shifting around and were clearly uncomfortable.) At one point I closed my eyes and put in my headphones, trying to block out everything. And as I did that, Hillsong’s song Still came onto my music, and it caught my attention. Here are the lyrics that interested me- When the oceans rise and thunders roar/I will soar with You above the storm/Father you are King over the flood/I will be still, and know You are God. I found it interesting, because at that point in time we were flying above some pretty black clouds. We were flying over a storm quite literally. And I realized that God was right there with us. I was soaring with Him over the storm in a very real fashion. That realization, as I began to talk to Him in a way I haven’t in a long time, brought me comfort. I understood what Paul was talking about when he wrote about how “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). God comforted me by revealing His presence to me and then by giving me His peace in a way I have never quite experienced it.

Lastly, God showed me His majesty and power (or a tiny piece of it anyway), and also how He connects things together in an amazing way. Before I got on my first flight, while I was waiting at that airport, I was reading in Job, specifically after God starts talking (Job 38-41).I made a single note in my Bible: The majesty and power of God… Woah. God is talking to Job about what He had done and it was awesome to me. And then as we were landing today, we had to descend from one of those storm clouds I was talking about. I watched the giant clouds roll past me and saw some lightning and God’s might hit me in a way it had never before. Those storm clouds rolled over us and I was able to watch them pass my window, close enough that if there had not been a window between us, I could have easily reached out and touched them. The beautiful and terrible storm revealed a piece of God that I don’t often think about. I know that He Is a powerful God, but I tend to like to focus on the loving part of God’s character. But He is so much more than that, and to be reminded of that was eye opening.

So, you could say I had an enlightening flight. Sometimes a perspective change is all that is needed, but with me, I guess it had to be a 30,000 foot change.