One of my nephews is a commercial airline pilot. He texted this photo from the cockpit while flying to Honolulu last week. Don’t worry, I scolded him for “texting while flying an airliner” ha ha. He is the one up there in the cockpit getting you to where is says on your airline ticket. He has worked very hard to get to his current position. I am very proud of him.
We don’t often think about the person up there flying this big beast and what it took for that person to be qualified to do that. We often hear them telling us over the in-flight audio system that he’s flying us at about 30,000 feet over some wonderful ocean or landmass. He doesn’t tell us every detail of how he got us up there cruising peacefully or what it takes to get us back on the ground safely…this is crazy for me to think about.
We just get on a plane, rarely looking left to the people in the cockpit and all that has to happen in the next couple of hours. We just turn right, head to our seat, get settled in comfort for our flight and TRUST.
What? Trust who? Trust what?
The process and God. When I get in that seat on the plane, I pray for the pilot who I did not see when I got on that plane. I trust God to guide that person to fly the plane. I pray to the unseen pilot—God that is controlling my life and all that goes on to keep us safe. Guess what? The pilot has to trust the process and God too, for him to get us safely to our destination. I want the person who trusts the God of the universe flying the plane. I know my nephew does.
This nephew's true purpose does not lie in his ability to be an airline pilot, but in his God-given gifts of teaching and showing others the way. God has used him in a most-powerful and purposeful way in teaching. Showing others how to fly and also how to navigate their lives by faith.
I had a pretty successful career in graphic design. God gave me those talents and I used them along the way to be successful in that career. How God is using me now to serve has very little to do with the “talents” and “skills” he gave me to draw, paint and design. My true purpose was found in my experiences in life—now being used after I went to my bottom of alcoholism. Serving others is my purpose. Exactly how God designed me.
I didn’t want to be an alcoholic. After surrendering my life to God and finding the path to recovery, completing the 12-steps with my sponsor, I began using my God-given gift—the gift of helping others in recovery for his purpose—to teach others how to stay on this path of recovery. Then for them to go out and do that for others and show the way. First, I had to walk the path and trust the process. Reinvention is often painful. Flying this life solo is not an option anymore. Not in my will.
It starts by trusting our “unseen pilot, God” Then looking for the evidence right in front of us where God has put a need. Trust the process and remember how you got here. Know that it is not blind faith, but informed faith in the “how” of God using you. I’m still learning and will continue to learn. I can see evidence along the way of God’s hand on my past and where He has brought me so far, giving me hope for a future—How and where God meant me to be. I trust my unseen pilot in this process to show me His will, not mine for the work and purpose he has fashioned for me.
Don’t fly solo.
Trust the process.
His Will not mine be done.
“Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10
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