Fear of Flying

I want you to know this morning that while FDR’s advice may have made political sense, it is the opposite of what we must do if we are to pray effectively. We spend most of our lives ignoring the danger we’re really in. Have you noticed? We don’t go to funerals because we don’t want to think about the inevitability of death. We won’t balance our checkbooks because we’re afraid we’ll be out of money! Like ostriches, we spend most of our lives hiding from truth because we can’t handle the desperation.

I really see this on airplanes. Why do you think alcohol is so popular in mid flight? It’s because if a person gets wasted enough, the plane may go down, but they won’t care. For me its different. I don’t drink, so I do the only thing I can do. When we take off, I close my eyes and grab ahold of my seat. Think of it! Do I really think that not seeing the wing come off on take off will keep me safe when the plane goes down? Wrong!

But that’s the way we are, not just in planes, but in life. We try to live without sensing the desperate danger we are in. And because we don’t feel the desperation of our lives apart from God, we aren’t very effective in our praying.