seekermeister
Member
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2007
- Messages
- 35
Christians come all in all sort of flavors. I know that my flavor isn't all that unusual, yet not plain vanilla, because I have known of quite a few like me. While I have always had a degree of faith in God, even as a child, I kept tucking it back into a corner, because I believed that what I had was nothing compared to what some other people had. One reason that I kept underestimating the ways that God had touched me, is because I kept shrugging them off as coincidences, or something explanable in some other fashion. I didn't do this because I wanted to, simply because i expected something else. Therefore, I arrived at the back door to my faith somewhat late in life, because of my stubbornness. To illustrate what I mean, I will give you a brief account of several events in my life. They are in no particular order of either time or significance, so that you might consider them as I did, as isolated occurrences. I am a retired pilot, and the majority of what I will recount is from that era of my life.
When I first began flying, like many people, I was afraid of the many ways that a person can get themselves into trouble, but one of the first jobs that I had, after my flight instructor period, was flying cargo in a light twin-engine aircraft between Albuquerque< NM and Beaumont, TX. I had acquired this job by being instrumental in getting the contract for my company. Although I had been promised my choice of routes and aircraft, that promise was forgotten, and I ended up where I did. I really didn't mind, except that flying in all weather across the terrain between Albuquerque and Roswell did not enthuse me. Before starting the contract, The company VP and myself flew the route from Dallas, to Albuquerque to arrange for services along the way. Since I was very green, I had to fly almost the entire way, under the hood (to simulate instrument conditions). However, as we approached Corona, which is midway between Alb. and Roswell, I removed the hood only to be somewhat startled by the remoteness and ruggedness of the terrain. Something told me that if I ever had any problems on this route, it would be there.
As it turned out, this voice was very accurate, because with the old worn out aircraft that I was assigned, I lost engines for no explanable reasons, and other malfunctions that one would not commoly expect. In each and every case, it was over the top of Corona. I could dwell on this some more, but there is other things to relate to you.
My great grandmother, who died at the age of 00, had a phobia about tornados, which is not too surprising, since she and her family lived in Stigler, Oklahoma...the middle of Tornado Alley. Finally, she got the family to move to Mesa, Arizona, which should have solved the problem, but ironically, her home was struck by a tornado, and she was killed. From what my mother told me, everything that she owned was destroyed, yet my grandmother escaped by being covered by a door, and her belonging were undamaged.
With a history such as that, you might think that I would have been prone to the same phobia, but while tornados did not thrill me, I have never actually seen one, except on TV, even though I live in Tulsa, back in Tornado Alley. I have flown through morethunderstorms than I could possiblt count, but never expienced anything more than a few bumps, and for the most part, I didn't have any radar to guide me...only a faith in me Lord.
This things were the earliest teachers of what faith was comprised of, because it evolved, to a large degree from fear. Fear and faith are just two sides of the same coin. Fear is a form of faith in evil, and some evil can be quite natural in form. I learned that whatever a person believes in, it shall happen, either for better or worse. When I realized that believing in the worst, caused it to happen, it became apparent that believing in the best, would have the same result.
I do not wish to fool anyone, because I certainly did not master that entirely, either then or now. But I have learned to expect the best from the worst...or as would fit my theme...there is a silver lining behind every black cloud. The silver lining is God.
There are many other things that I could tell you, but these should be sufficient to make the point.
When I first began flying, like many people, I was afraid of the many ways that a person can get themselves into trouble, but one of the first jobs that I had, after my flight instructor period, was flying cargo in a light twin-engine aircraft between Albuquerque< NM and Beaumont, TX. I had acquired this job by being instrumental in getting the contract for my company. Although I had been promised my choice of routes and aircraft, that promise was forgotten, and I ended up where I did. I really didn't mind, except that flying in all weather across the terrain between Albuquerque and Roswell did not enthuse me. Before starting the contract, The company VP and myself flew the route from Dallas, to Albuquerque to arrange for services along the way. Since I was very green, I had to fly almost the entire way, under the hood (to simulate instrument conditions). However, as we approached Corona, which is midway between Alb. and Roswell, I removed the hood only to be somewhat startled by the remoteness and ruggedness of the terrain. Something told me that if I ever had any problems on this route, it would be there.
As it turned out, this voice was very accurate, because with the old worn out aircraft that I was assigned, I lost engines for no explanable reasons, and other malfunctions that one would not commoly expect. In each and every case, it was over the top of Corona. I could dwell on this some more, but there is other things to relate to you.
My great grandmother, who died at the age of 00, had a phobia about tornados, which is not too surprising, since she and her family lived in Stigler, Oklahoma...the middle of Tornado Alley. Finally, she got the family to move to Mesa, Arizona, which should have solved the problem, but ironically, her home was struck by a tornado, and she was killed. From what my mother told me, everything that she owned was destroyed, yet my grandmother escaped by being covered by a door, and her belonging were undamaged.
With a history such as that, you might think that I would have been prone to the same phobia, but while tornados did not thrill me, I have never actually seen one, except on TV, even though I live in Tulsa, back in Tornado Alley. I have flown through morethunderstorms than I could possiblt count, but never expienced anything more than a few bumps, and for the most part, I didn't have any radar to guide me...only a faith in me Lord.
This things were the earliest teachers of what faith was comprised of, because it evolved, to a large degree from fear. Fear and faith are just two sides of the same coin. Fear is a form of faith in evil, and some evil can be quite natural in form. I learned that whatever a person believes in, it shall happen, either for better or worse. When I realized that believing in the worst, caused it to happen, it became apparent that believing in the best, would have the same result.
I do not wish to fool anyone, because I certainly did not master that entirely, either then or now. But I have learned to expect the best from the worst...or as would fit my theme...there is a silver lining behind every black cloud. The silver lining is God.
There are many other things that I could tell you, but these should be sufficient to make the point.
