Pre-flight Jitters

Wednesday’s reading told how the writer asked a wise Christian for help and heard, “Yes, I know; but there is God.” Today he (or she) tells of going again and again only to receive the same simple reply. She writes, “At last, because she said it so often and seemed so sure, I began dimly to wonder whether God might really be enough, even for my need, overwhelming and peculiar as I felt it to be.”

This author “came gradually to believing, that, being my Creator and Redeemer, He must be enough; and finally a conviction burst upon me that He really was enough, and my eyes were opened to the all-sufficiency of God.”

I marvel at how simple it sounds and how much we struggle with it. If someone asked me, “Is God bigger than your problems?” I would say, “Of course,” yet would I go on lamenting my problems? Would I keep stewing and worrying about them as if there were no God?

Far too many times my Christian life has been practiced more like I was an atheist, as if I thought God didn’t even exist. I suspect there are many “believers” who do the same.

Today my eyes fall on Psalm 125. It begins with, “Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides forever.”

Sometimes I think I am trusting the LORD but my body isn’t listening to my heart. I feel tense, moved, worked up by what is going on. If I look at me as a measurement of faith, it seems as if I am failing the test. This morning, I’ve got the pre-flight jitters. Don’t I trust God?

However, there is verse 2: “As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds His people from this time forth and forever.”

Faith isn’t just about me believing; it is about God taking care of me. I may flop all over the place and think faith has taken a hike, but the LORD hasn’t gone anywhere. He surrounds me with Himself. His care doesn’t stop, even when I wonder or am not sure of things.

Today I catch a taxi to the airport, make one connection on the way, and fly to another city I’ve never been before. This might be ordinary for other people, but I’ve not flown alone for years. My heart is beating a little faster than usual. I keep going over my check list, wondering what I’ve missed.

However, I hear that woman’s advice applied to my agitation, “Yes, I know; but there is God.” As soon as the focus goes from “what did I forget” or “will I miss the connection” or “will my cousin remember to come to the airport for me” and I start thinking about Almighty God of the universe, then my tension relaxes and my heart slows to normal.

God is enough and He is here. My soul can rest in Him.