Our Final Flight Series

I think a lot of pilots fly because it’s an escape from the mundane and the daily grind. It’s therapeutic. But not all of us are pilots; however, all of us do face trials and struggles. Whether you are a grounded pilot, someone who’s lost a job or been through a bad relationship, or even experienced the death of a loved one, you must continue walking if you want to cross the finish line of life – and the Lord can help us do just that if we will “wait on Him” and fall on Him in time of need.

Warren Wiersbe says, “As we wait before Him, God enables us to soar when there is a crisis, to run when the challenges are many, and to walk faithfully in the day-by-day demands of life.”(5) “I can plod,” said William Carey, the father of modern missions. “That is my only genius. I can persevere in any definite pursuit.”(6) Wiersbe continues to say, “The greatest heroes of faith are not always those who seem to be soaring; often it is they who are patiently plodding . . . As we wait on the Lord, He enables us not only to fly higher and run faster, but also to walk longer. Blessed are the plodders, for they eventually arrive at their destination!”(7) And what is that destination?

Earlier, I shared about Magee, the military pilot who wrote the poem “High Flight” after having soared to 30,000 feet during a Spitfire V test flight. “Only three months later, [on] December 11, 1941, Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, Jr. was killed when his Spitfire V was flying in virtually zero visibility and collided with an Oxford Trainer over Tangmere, England.”(8) Magee was raised in a missionary family. He also spoke of God in his poem. He probably had a relationship with Jesus Christ; and so, his final flight and, thus, final destination led to heaven.

We read in 1 Thessalonians 4, “But I do not want you to . . . sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus . . . For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words” (vv. 13-14, 16-18).

There’s one more thing to note about waiting on the Lord. Page Kelley said, “To wait [on] the Lord . . . means to respond in faith to the proclamation of His coming. Although His coming still lies in the future, the response of faith makes its benefits immediately available . . . Faith,” he said, “is never merely the means by which victory is achieved; faith is the victory!”(9) Chris . . . Connie . . . friends and family . . . the days ahead will be difficult, but I encourage you to lean on God; to seek His face; and take comfort in knowing that George has finally experienced the wonder of flight as it’s ultimately meant to be!

NOTES

(1) The Airman’s Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2012), p. 1162.