Breaking through the fog

7:45 this morning found me inside a small CarpatAir plane, bumping down the runway on the way to Timisoara, Romania, and then on to Odessa. As we took off the small plane groaned, creaked and shuddered. A gray, overcast, drizzly morning led to turbulence, making me feel sick to my stomach. We climbed higher and higher, the sky grew darker and darker and it felt never ending. I closed my eyes to do what I find myself doing more and more of during flights: praying. I've found that the more time I spend praying on flights, the more distracted I am from the mounting paranoia that tugs at the corners of my mind while flying. "How in the world can this metal tube be flying thousands of feet above the earth?", "If we crash, I will certainly die. I don't want to die this way!, "Wait, what was that sound? That can't possibly be good.", "Why do I do this so often when I really don't enjoy it all?"

So I pray. I pray for the pilots to be alert, to use the wisdom and knowledge that they were given, that God will guide their hands, etc. Then I move on to anyone and everyone that I can possibly think of . I pray for problems, for blessings, for God's guidance....the list goes on and on. And as time passes, I find my mind is calm again, at least until we begin the descent, anyway. Then the process begins again. But today right in the middle of the process, something happened that made me stop and think.

We burst out of darkness and turbulence into the calm of a brilliant blue, almost blindingly sunny sky. And the thought came to me: this is kind of like life. We, as believers, oftentimes get so bogged down in the trials and tribulations of life that it feels like a never ending season of life. All we can see are the foggy gray days filled with turbulence and we don't have the faith or fortitude to cling to the knowledge that He is good and faithful and has allowed these times for a reason. We get stuck in the turbulent times and begin to doubt His goodness and faithfulness and wonder if there could possibly ever be sunny days again. And so I asked myself these questions: "Do I believe that He is the giver of all joy? Do I cling to the knowledge that He is good and faithful and has allowed these days for a reason? Do I believe that these days are part of the refinement process that takes me to where He wants me to be? Do I believe that He wants my absolute best?, Do I pray as much during these days as when I'm hurtling through the skies in a metal tube??"

If I can truly understand that "All things work together for good", then how does this change my outlook on life? And will you allow it to change yours?