I flew to Georgia this morning, 5:00am to be precise. We came down the runway looking at thunderheads all around us and lightning at our one o’clock. That’s pilot lingo for almost straight ahead. I was riding in the copilot seat and had complete control of the aircraft. Well…, I could have except that the pilot would’ve yelled at me and been really ticked.

As we flew into the storm in our small plane (a Cessna 340 if you’re interested), rain hitting the windscreen, the wind buffeting us all over the place, I questioned, internally, the decision to not climb as quickly as possible and get us out of the mess. I don’t know why. Maybe it had something to do with fuel conservation. Maybe a rapid ascent would have put us in greater danger.

I’m not a pilot, so I can only guess at his thought processes.

What he did do was what he called threading the needle. The major cloud formations had gaps between them. We climbed to about 8000 feet nod flew between them. We were hit with violent turbulence, rain, ice and darkness. And, we came through unscathed.

We often talk about going through the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23), but don’t understand why. Developing character, patience, Godliness, seems ridiculous in the face of difficult, overwhelming circumstances. We are scared, hurt, broken, defeated and the only solution that makes any sense to our minds is, “GET ME OUT OF HERE!!”

What would have happened to me and my fellow passengers if I would have grabbed the controls?

I’m not God, neither are you. I don’t know much, neither do you. Can you, will you trust Him today?

Will I?