Spiritual Flight Rules

“Dad,” my young daughter said many years ago when we were on a flight from our hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee, to Seattle, Washington. “How can they fly when they can’t see anything?”

There were clear skies most of the flight, but a couple of hours away from Seattle we ran into some clouds and it stayed that way the rest of the trip. The only thing you could see outside the window was clouds.

“The pilots have sophisticated instruments that see for them,” I answered, pleased with the opportunity to teach my daughter something. “And they have flight control towers and people who work in them called Air Traffic Controllers. They also have sophisticated instruments that help them keep all the planes on the right flight path so they don’t run into each other. The ATCs see all the air space and can keep the planes from running into each other. Right now, the pilots are using Instrument Flight Rules, IFR, to fly the plane. When they can see outside the plane, they can use VFR, Visual Flight Rules.”

A little while later, the captain announced we were about thirty minutes from Seattle and we were still flying through clouds and couldn’t see a thing outside the window. I could feel the plane descending and then we broke through the clouds and a second later, we landed.

“That’s amazing, Dad!” she exclaimed after we landed. “Even though the pilots couldn’t see anything out the window, using the instruments, they had us right where we were supposed to be when it came time to land.”

“That’s how it is with our walk with God. Some days are sunny and we can use VFR. Things seem great and then suddenly clouds roll in and we can’t see a thing. We question if we’re going in the direction God wants us to go and we need to use SFR, Spiritual Flight Rules. We need to trust God and that He has us right where He wants us and not go by what we see. Have faith in our Spiritual Traffic Controller. Even on sunny days, we can wind up going in the wrong direction so, even then we need to use SFR.”

“Like when you’re driving and I know you’re lost,” she grinned. “I should pray God will eventually get us there or you’ll stop and ask someone for directions.”

“Good one, kiddo,” I smiled back.