The Plane View

Landed in Johannesburg today. It was a nice, almost uneventful 18-hour flight. One sudden violent and jarring shake over Angola — which prompted someone to shout “ride em cowboy!” — reminded me of my immortality and awoke in me the then dozing reality that I was 38,000 feet above the earth in a man-made tube that defies all the laws of nature and physics. But otherwise, a good ride.

Not a lot to say, but one thing important. On the plane, I was reading Jen Hatmaker’s “Interrupted” and came across “Brandon’s Take” (her husband’s perspective on their journey of… well, I can’t describe it…just read the book.) Anyway, he was sharing a story about a momentary outpouring of personal wealth ($195 spent buying groceries and other items for a homeless fellow) that came after a call from the Lord. He admitted to having second thoughts on the expenditure afterward, when lo and behold an envelope containing $195 showed up on his desk. I hear of these things happening fairly often – meaning God is active and on the move. But what I underlined in the book was not the story, but the following observation from the story:

“God was speaking loudly. He wasn’t saying ‘Bless others and I will give you money’; He was saying, “The provision was not from you; it was from Me. What you have is not yours. You have a lot to learn. The first is this: You can trust Me when I call.’”

This screamed to me. At 38,000 feet above Africa, one truly can get the proverbial “30,000-foot view.” And that is where I was when I read this. But unless we travel, as we all hope to someday, that infinite number of light years high, we will never understand the full picture. That is what “trust” is all about. “What you have is not yours.” But. “You can trust Me when I call.”

Amen.