by Rick Gamble
Volume 31, No. 18
April 30, 2006
Wings and A Prayer
For solid insight into the
Christian life, try sticking your hand out the window of a moving car.
That’ll teach you everything you need
to know about the principles of flight — and faith — two things that
have much in common. After all, have you ever wondered how a 435-ton
jetliner carrying hundreds of people soars into the air effortlessly and
stays there? It’s all because of lift, weight, thrust and
drag.
Drag is the force that resists
the movement of the plane through the air. When you stick that hand out
the window, the amount of drag your open palm creates depends on
things like the size of your hand and the speed of the car. If you slow
down, the drag decreases. Just as Olympic downhill skiers crouch
tightly to become “smaller”, jets bring up their wheels to reduce drag.
To further overcome drag,
airplanes create thrust — forward movement — using jet engines or
propellers. But they also need lift to keep the airplane aloft,
and that’s why wings are so important. They generate lift in two
ways: their angle and shape.
Let’s go back to the
hand-out-the-window illustration. If you tilt your palm up, the air
strikes the bottom of your hand and pushes it higher by creating lift.
Changing this “angle of attack” determines whether it goes up or down.
Same with an airplane wing. During takeoff, the wing’s flaps are angled
back and down to create more lift.
Also, if you look closely at a wing,
you’ll notice the front edge — known as the leading edge — is
slightly higher than the back or trailing edge. Aircraft
designers do this so that, when the plane’s moving, more air strikes the
bottom of the wing than the top, pushing the wing up and keeping the
plane in the air. To fly straight and level, the plane’s thrust
must be at least as strong as its drag, and lift must
equal the jet’s weight. It’s all about balance.
The same is true of Christian life.
If we’re going to rise above the drag, distress and distractions
of daily circumstances, we’ve got to
minimize the friction we encounter by
slowing down and making ourselves smaller. Just as your hand out the
window encounters much less resistance when the car slows, our lives
become far more manage-able and fulfilling when we ease our pace and set
the right priorities.
Instead of getting caught in the
hamster wheel of gotta-have, let’s find our identity and value in
Christ. “Don’t live just to make a good impression on others,” Paul
writes. “Don’t think only about your own affairs but be interested in
others and what they’re doing.” (Phil. 2:3,4) That will be easier if we
see our relationship with Jesus like John the Baptist did. “He must
become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.”(John 3:30)
To compensate for the drag of
our rebellious human nature, we must live with the proper thrust
and emphasis. Listen to Paul’s sense of priority and purpose: “I keep
working toward that day when I’ll finally be all Christ Jesus saved me
for and wants me to be. No... I’m still not all I should be, but I’m
focussing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and
looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach [the destination]
and receive the prize for which God... is calling us up to heaven.”
(Phil. 3:12-14) Christians and airplanes both start to fall the minute
they stop moving forward.
That’s where our “angle of attack”
comes in. Spiritual altitude is determined by spiritual
attitude. So our thinking and behaviour must be angled upwards as
we remember we’re “citizens of heaven”(v.20.) If we’re continually
looking down on others and concentrating on the distractions around us,
our faith will never get off the ground in a meaningful way. But if we
keep our focus on prayer and the presence of God — allowing the Wind to
take us higher — we’ll be on the leading edge of faith. “He gives power
to those who are tired and worn out; He offers strength to the weak,”
says Isaiah. “Those who wait on the Lord will... fly high on wings like
eagles.” (Is. 40:29,31)
You’re cleared for takeoff.
By Rick Gamble. Published in Cross
Current, the weekly newsletter of the followers of Christ congregation
in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. Reprint at will in not-for-profit
publications. To subscribe to this free weekly article, send a note to
Rick at
sgamble@bfree.on.ca