Flying

O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure. Isaiah 25:1

By my own admission, I’m a nervous flyer.  I’m way better than I used to be – practice over the past eight years or so has lessened by anxiety a bit.  But it still exists.  I rediscovered this weakness as Susie and I took a trek across the country last week.  And with some very significant air travel to happen later this year…my nervousness is bound to yet manifest itself.

But there is a good side to this nervousness about flying.  When you are nervous about a situation, like flying, every aspect of it seems to be magnified…including those swift but sincere prayers for grace and safety.  Trust me, I prayed for safety just before every take-off last week (all five) and prayed a prayer of gratitude after every landing (all five again).  And I took nothing about each flight for granted…including the prayers.

Yet in every-day life…I tend to take so much for granted.  Including prayers of gratitude like that we read in Isaiah 25.  And I wonder why?  In my relative comfort (at least when I’m not about to board a plane)…God becomes a more distant need?  Probably.  To my shame.

Isaiah may have written this prayer in a time of crisis – perhaps in seeing his land taken over and his people carried away into exile.  It could be.  On the other hand, maybe this is just how he started every morning, exclaiming, “I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things….”

I’m thinking I need to work at starting my days this way also.  I should pray for God’s grace and safety at the beginning of each and every day.  And give him my thanks for being with me as the day winds down.  Life, I suppose, is not much different than flying.  How was your take-off this morning?  What will your landing look like? And how prayerfully will we approach both?

Have a great day flying my friends!