Fear of Flying

I went on a business trip Monday. Flew out of Greensboro to Pittsburgh, had meetings, flew back on Tuesday. I don't like flying.....it used to terrify me, too. I don't like flying because you are not in control. You don't have control of your time, your luggage, how rough or how smooth the flight, and particularly, you don't have control over that airplane or its pilots. (Obviously this is another trust issue for me) Flying used to be terrifying for me. I always would say that I'm not afraid to die I just don't want to die afraid. Falling out of the sky at any height is a horrifying prospect. Who wants terror to be their last emotion on this earth?

When flying this time, we had awful weather, flight delays, rush for connections, mechanical delays and crying babies. Negotiating our way through a very long day on Monday, my boss
was the picture of patience. Tim was totally unruffled by all the out-of-control madness US AIR
threw at us. He also is not afraid of flying at all. He smiled at me a lot, calmed me down when needed, and gave me a little talk on the chances that anything bad would happen to us. (tiny percentage) I had heard all this countless times before. For someone like me who has lived by numbers, percentages, and data for the last seven years, you'd think that information would kick me out of flight-phobia. Not quite.

It wasn't until dinner that night. After the day's rush was behind us, when Tim said grace at the restaurant and thanked God for my presence with him on this trip, that the fear of flying left me. A simple statement of gratitude from my boss was what it took to get me over that hump.
I am so blessed to be HERE to be able to put myself on a plane for a business trip. I have patiently pushed my way through many series of treatments, setbacks and victories and there I was, in Pennsylvania on a Monday in April of 2008. I have patiently trusted in God to bring me through all sorts of sickness, pain and anguish. I needed just one more lesson in patience and trust and, as subtle as it may seem, I got it. Why oh why if I had trusted my Lord for my health and healing, would I not trust Him with an airplane flight???

So on Tuesday, after the meetings were over and we set off for home, I was a different person.
I was now a person who was patient with the whole flying experience. We did not experience as many delays, but it didn't matter, I had a good book to read. We did experience quite a bit of turbulence during take-off and landing, but once we were high enough, it was smooth sailing.
It didn't bother me that my bag didn't come off the conveyor belt until near the end. All the things I used to stress over were suddenly too small, too trivial to fret about. And boarding the plane for the flight home was one of the easiest things I have done for travel in a long time.
The things we cannot control we really do have to let go out the window of our minds. So the fear of flying just went flying off into the distance at 26,000ft.

Now back to patience. Thank God for Tim's. It was his calmness, his confidence, his patience with me that served to remind me that if I am not patient and trusting in every aspect of my life,
I'll live like a yo-yo. A devotional I have describes patience as "consistent endurance". The tests and the trials we have (like flying on Monday), don't perfect us in God's eyes, it is what we do with them that counts. We are not made perfect because of bunch of problems come our way,
we're perfected when we stick with what we know to be true, when we trust and have faith, in the middle of it all, in the midst of the clouds.

There is no telling how much of my life has been wasted by stressing and worrying over airline flights. I know I have lost sleep many times over the prospect of getting on a plane. And at a time of my life when I so desperately pray and hope for major things to be swept out of my life for good, I got another lesson from my God and a bonus to boot. I always have to remember that there is no fear where His love is and He is everywhere. After more than 25 years, there is no more fear of flying.

"But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and whole, wanting nothing"
James 1:4