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The life of faith is like flying an aeroplane. Your attitude can help or hinder your flight path. Let us turn to that most reliable manual, the Word of God, and maintain our focus on higher things.

Right from the beginning, I ask any pilots who read this article to forgive me for any oversimplification of the following flight concepts. I have had many flights in light planes, but I confess, I am not a pilot.

The other morning, I awoke from my sleep and found my mind reflecting on this phrase, “Attitude determines altitude.” I googled the word attitude in relation to plane flight and was intrigued by what I found.

I discovered that like human beings, planes have attitude as well.

Planes Have Attitude

I am indebted to Bob, a friend of mine who had been a pilot for many years, for the following information about plane flight.

Technically, planes have attitude. The attitude of a plane is usually understood as its orientation relative to the horizontal plane.

This orientation can be described in terms of:

• Pitch — is the plane’s nose pointing above at or below the natural horizon?
• Roll — are the wings level or is one lower or higher than the other?
• Yaw — is the plane’s fuselage aligned with the direction of travel or skewed to the left, or right?

All these factors will determine the plane’s flight performance. Add to these the amount of power that is applied by the plane’s engine, and you will arrive at the primary rule of attitude flying:

ATTITUDE + POWER = PERFORMANCE

People Have Attitude

If we apply these flight principles to our lives, we see some interesting parallels. Let us first look at the importance of attitude.

Pitch

As humans, our emotional pitch could be keeping us on the level, lifting us into the heights of great elation or carrying us down into the depths of woeful depression.

A pilot will carefully monitor his instruments, and if he discovers the plane is not level, he can choose to correct the plane’s pitch. For us, our emotions are not to be the pilot of our lives.

The Word of God is the instrument God wants us to use to monitor the spiritual condition of our lives. As we read the Bible, we need to allow the Holy Spirit to reveal if we need some correction in our spiritual walk.

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” (2Timothy 3:16 NKJV)

Roll

Our minds are one of God’s most amazingly complex creations. Almost every day, we hear of people suffering various mental health issues. Mental confusion, condemning thoughts, disturbing inner voices and paralysing fears seem to be in plague proportions.

A pilot needs to have a clear mind to fly an aircraft competently. He needs to be able to make use of the roll attitude to make successful turns to reach his destination safely. As Christians, we need to learn to have control over our thought-life to be able to manage our lives successfully.

The apostle Paul says much about the importance of our minds as we live for Jesus. God has not put us on autopilot. God has made us as free agents who can choose to submit our lives to our Creator and His wisdom, so we make good life decisions. Paul says we have the God-given power to shape our thought life.

“Bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:5 NKJV)

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV)

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:2 NKJV)

Yaw

Finally, pilots need to recognise when their plane is no longer aligned along the direction of travel. This factor is called Yaw. If it continues, it can place atmospheric drag on the plane’s fuselage, thereby reducing the plane’s performance. More fuel is unnecessarily spent to compensate for the drag.

As Christians, we could be unaware that there has been a subtle drift from centre, a slight deviation from the Lord’s will. We may have started off well, but now there has been a loss of focus on the Lord’s leading.

Some symptoms of spiritual yaw can be fatigue, loss of enthusiasm and being distracted with less important pursuits in life. We need to be honest with ourselves to check the condition of our personal alignment with God’s will. The prophet Isaiah gives us the key to staying aligned with God and maintaining spiritual enthusiasm.

“Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
(Isaiah 40:31 NKJV)

The apostle Paul adds the following guidance with some of my own bracketed tags related to plane flight.

“Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [air traffic controllers], let us lay aside every weight [thing that causes drag], and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run [fly] with endurance the race [flight path] that is set before us.” (Hebrews 12:1 NKJV)

Conclusion

May the Lord help you to monitor your attitude as you daily read His Word.

“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” (Joshua 1:8 NKJV)

May the Holy Spirit lift you up on eagle’s wings and empower you to keep to the course God has called you to.

“You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.” (Exodus 19:4 NKJV)

May Jesus Christ infuse you with the Spirit of adventure as you follow Him.

“Be … not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.” (Romans 12:11 NKJV)

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Photo by Vikki.