A friend who is an air traffic controller told me a story he’d heard.
It seems that two Brazilian pilots had to fly the day of a super-important soccer match. No problem. They took off with their passengers, leveled out and got their coordinates.
In those days, it seems you could still get regular radio channels on the airplane’s radio, so after setting their course, they tuned out the control tower and tuned in the match.
Hours passed as they played the match with the players from their perch high above the world. After the game they turned the radio back on to check in. A little problem presented itself though. When they had locked in their original coordinates they had made a mistake.
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They now found themselves flying high over the Amazon jungle, hours from the nearest airport and with not enough fuel to reach a place to land. According to the story, the black box fished from the crash site contained prayers and all sorts of heart-rending voices.
Whether this story is true or only an air-traffic controllers legend, it’s something to think about.
Lots of us get busy in life, running after things we like to do or just making a living. We turn our “radio” off and just listen to voices that please us or challenge us in a direction we want to go.
God tries to break through, but we’ve turned his channel off. Oh, we give Him lip service, but truth is, we don’t listen too closely. We’re afraid He’ll tell us to make a course change we don’t want to make.
Let’s be sure that we don’t finally turn the “control-tower radio” back on and find ourselves irremediably lost.
“If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you.
“But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke,
“I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you-when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you.
“Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me. Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the LORD, since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.” (Prov. 1:23-31, NIV)
Ummm, my friend. If you life if full of noise and things that help you forget, can I make a suggestion? You might want to turn your radio to the “air-traffic control” frequency. Someone is trying to call you before it’s too late!
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Hmmm…
– Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me, I want people to know “why” I look this way. I’ve traveled a long way and some of the roads weren’t paved.