Just past thirty years of age, on a trip by the local airport, I mentioned to my wife that I would like to fly. Her response was, “you should take lessons.” And it was as if it was the answer to what was inside of me saying “I should try.” I was a dad of four and a husband of 18 or so years. I had built our home with help from friends and family, but could I fly? I wasn’t so sure. The world was not quick to let you know that you could do all things through Christ. After all didn’t you have to have wisdom and understanding that only a few have been given. Wouldn’t reading and math skills have to be what came easy to you? I had been led to believe that I was just barely average at best, when it came to academics. At least that was my grade in school. A place I had no desire to be. School to me was a place where I was graded on what they thought, not what I knew. So why try? My ideas of what life was and who I was, never was what they saw, and because I never made their grade, I kept most of what I knew to be truth to myself. Coming to know God at an early age, I knew I held His Truth deep within me. But the world’s records showed me only to be average at best. Should I go with what their records of me said or with who deep down inside of me I knew. Would I let fear and lack of understanding keep me from what my heart was telling me I could do, if it was my desire. And wasn’t my desire of my heart what I was suppose to have? If I had been seeking God first? Was fear and lack of understanding keeping me from all I desired? Could I do all things through Christ or not? Was I tempting God? God forbid. The questions kept coming, each one causing doubt and unbelief. Was God trying to keep me grounded, or had I been grounding myself?

I pulled onto the airport road and headed to the first sign that said, “Learn to fly.” I signed up for the ground school and came out to the car and told my wife, “I am all signed up.” I believe she was wondering like myself. What is he about to do? I purchased all the books and charts and I was on my way.

There comes a time in every life when each individual will need to learn to trust in that inner knowing, it will be ok, trust in Me. The signs that follow the trust ,will be what you are looking for, to be sure the devil is not leading you a stray. By the faith I had been given, I had a life only God could provide. My Wife I adore. Four sons that I lived for. Was I crazy?

Soon after the ground school started I made my first appointment to take to the sky. My instructor was a young man half my age, He had been trained at one of the finest aviation schools in the USA. My instructions to him were, “I want to do whatever this plane will do, so I may know all about it. I plan to bring my family in this plane one day, and I need to understand it the best I can.

It was the same way I searched for understanding of who God was. I wanted to know all I could about Him. I want to understand everything I could about Him. And I knew His Son was the 0nly One that knew Him. If another was going to trust me with their life I had to know what I was telling them would never change. If others were to trust me with their life, I could not take that lightly. I had to know, and understand.

Each time I flew with my instuctor, he would say, “why do you want to do stalls and spins?” Stalls and spins is when the plane is out of control and you must react correctly to bring it back in control or it becomes more out of control. It is called the attitude of the plane and you learn to read the attitude and react accordingly. You can not always go by what you see or feel, you must use every sense and at times just trust your inner knowing. When you trust in your inner knowing, they call that dead reckoning. As I was learning to fly I was finding as much about myself as I was about the plane.

When flying you are held in the air by a force you cannot see. When you trust you can do all things in Christ, it is almost the same. But better.

Each trip out with my instructor he would direct me and cover me, in case I made a move that was wrong. I took off and landed at least a hundred times with my instructor, and I had built a confidence in myself that he saw, and it was time for me to fly solo. I was not sure I was ready. Did I know enough? How would I react alone? Would I do the right thing? Was I selfish in risking my life with a wife and children? Who did I think I was anyway? All the same questions, that would only have answers that caused doubt and unbelief and fear in what I knew to be true.

When you allow Christ to come and live in your heart, you will have a inner knowing that will lead you, that you will need to trust. The signs that follow will let you know He can be trusted. The questions that come that cause doubt and unbelief, and fear of death, you can be sure are not God talking to you. The understanding that you reach when you live by faith and trust in your heart’s knowing, will set you free.

When you solo for your first time, you are sure you can take off, but until you land by yourself, you do not know that you can. You have to trust in the inner knowing that you can.

Until you land you don’t know.

After you land is when the understanding comes.

Faith is the substance of the things hoped for and the evidence of the things not seen.

Thank you God For your Son and the understanding.