Volume 31

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)

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