Turbulences of Life
/
“But we rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us.” Romans 5:3-5
On a recent long airplane flight, we encountered turbulence. The pilot came on the speaker and asked everyone to stay seated with seat belts fastened including all the flight attendants. A few minutes later, the pilot spoke again. He had checked with pilots in a two-hundred-mile radius, and they were all encountering the same turbulence. So there was no flying around or out of this intense air stream. He said, “Just hold on and we will get through this.”
It was the worst turbulence I had ever experienced. The plane rattled, dropped, jumped, shuddered, and rocked back and forth. It sounded like the plane was being torn apart. Everyone on the plane was quiet until a gust of wind hit and we all jumped and you heard, “Oh, no.” There was nothing anybody could do but stay seated, hold on and pray. And that is what we did for almost two hours. It was intense during those two long hours. We were strangers on a plane who became bonded together out of fear. We talked each other through it and gave each other support just being present together.
Turbulence is a time of unsteady movement, roughness, turmoil, unrest, confusion, troubles, and disturbances. It is when there is no calmness or peace. Turbulence happens in life not just on airplanes. You have each experienced troubled times when you had no control and did not know if you would survive. Every part of your being was rattled, and all you could do was cry out in the darkness hoping God was listening and just be in the intensity of the turmoil. Some of you are still in the midst of this disturbance. You will need to just hold on and ride it out trusting God is beside you even if you do not feel His presence. God may not take you out of this storm, but He will be with you through it.
Some of you have made it through the current turbulence and feel like you are on some solid ground. When the plane landed, I was so thankful to be on the ground. My body was still feeling the tension of the flight, but I survived and I thanked God for His protection. I was glad it was over. You have survived. You were not sure for awhile because you were consumed by the turmoil of life. You persevered. You survived. You prayed and cried out to God during the storm trusting and hoping He was really with you.
Turbulence is not something you can plan for or even prevent. I did not expect it on our flight. I knew the pilot was trained how to fly the plane through it. I had to trust his expertise, but I also knew the pilot had no control over the power of nature. You have no control when the troubles will hit you, but we live in a broken world so they are inevitable.
You may not know what to do in the troubles of life, but God does. We just need to trust Him even when we cannot see our way through the confusion, hurt, and troubles of the present. Trust the Pilot of your life – Jesus. Even if you plan for the unrest and troubles of life, you cannot change it or prevent it from happening. You will just spend your life in high anxiety and worry. You will not live and take risks out of fear of something bad happening. Turbulence is always a risk when you fly, but it does not always happen. Some flights are very smooth. It was a smooth and easy flight on the way home. Turbulence will happen in life. You cannot control it or stop it. So the question is – how are you going to deal with it?
My choice has been to hold God’s hand and trust Him in the present. It is living in the moment more and releasing the future to God. As troubles come, I am trying to learn from them, grow in them and develop who I am – my character – because of what I have experienced. I have hope that the troubles will not last forever. They have a purpose. But most of all, I grow closer to Jesus as He holds my hand.
