Lean not on your own understanding.
Yesterday, I confessed to my fear of flying and how irrational it seems to me that we trust someone we’ve never met to take us 36,000 feet up in the air.
I want to stay on the topic of flying this week and share a few more of my insights with you while we’re at it.
Another reason why flying feels scary to me is that I don’t know how to do it myself. That may sound weird, but let me explain. As humans, we tend to want to be in control of what we do and what happens to us.
We feel most secure–in our comfort zone, if you will–when we’re doing something we know how to do well. Because when something goes wrong, we have the skill to fix it.
But that’s not the case with flying. I’m no pilot, so I have no idea how to fly a plane. If something were to go wrong mid-flight, I don’t have the knowledge to fix it or make a safe emergency landing. While in the air, I must entirely trust the pilot's skills and expertise.
Life is much like a flight. Though there are many things we do understand and can control, we also encounter situations that just don’t make sense to us, and we cannot fix. Sickness, loss, hardships–just to name a few–are things we can’t explain.
God tells us to trust Him, and that we don’t need to understand it all:
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” – Proverbs 3:5-6, NIV
The truth is, I don’t understand anything about flying an airplane, but I trust the fact that the person behind the controls knows everything he needs to know.
Faith is not about understanding every turn—it’s about trusting the One who’s steering the journey.
