Weekly e-News April 15

Hey, everyone!

Hope you've had an awesome week! I know I did!! Last week, I was in San Diego for a retreat for lots folks who reach out to high school and college kids through Young Life in California, Arizona, and New Mexico…

And as you probably guessed just from the sound of those states, it was on the other side of America…

So, last weekend I crossed our nation…twice! In three days! (Try to beat that, Lewis & Clark!)

The weather in the Golden State was less than golden…It was cold and drizzly (which I didn’t expect)…

And I had to spend about nine hours total above America, coming and going (which I did expect, but never really get used to!)

I didn’t have any real travel problems except that during the flight…we were going 300 mph! 

And we were 30000 feet above the earth! 

That's 5.6818 miles!! 

Folks all around me were sleeping, playing games on their phones, chatting…Did it the whole way! 

I was praying to our Lord and thinking about the meaning of life instead! Did it the whole way! 

I know it's dumb! "Why am I afraid?" I ask myself.

Here's what's dumb about being afraid of flying on planes…

During your whole lifetime, you could get struck by lightning. In fact, our chances of actually being be-crisped by a lightning bolt in our life is one in 80,000. There have been lots of reports lately about this or that random asteroid hitting our Earth. Chances of that happening and squashing us is one in 200,000 in our lifetime. Sad to say, but one in 8,000,000 of our fellow humans will be a shark's snack in our lifetime. 

But your chance of being killed in a plane crash is one in 90,000,000! That's ten times less likely that being swallowed by a shark! 

"Your chance of being killed in a plane crash is so low, you could fly every day for the next 250,000 years before you would perish in a crash," according to Arnold Barnett, a professor at MIT and expert on the risk of flying. 

And if you are in a plane crash, your chances of survival are actually 95.7%! 

Bet you didn't think that!

So the question remains, pal…"Why were you afraid?"

It's an excellent question! 

It's been asked before…

Once Jesus was in a boat…late at night…in the dark…(this is getting scarier by the minute!)…in a sudden and terrifying storm! Wind was howling! Waves were crashing! His friends were screaming! And He was like one of my seat mates on the American Airlines flight from McGee Tyson to San Diego International! 

Sleeping!

"Lord! Don't You care that we're drowning!?"

It's a real concern! The chances of dying in a water transport accident in your lifetime is one in 5,683!!

Except for one factor that needed to be calculated.

Jesus was in the boat with them.

He had a job to do. He had been sent to our Earth to do it. Nothing would stop Him from accomplishing it! And nothing would happen until it was done! So, in a rickety ol' boat, in a raging storm, in the middle of the deepest sea and the darkest night, with Him in  the boat, there wasn't a safer place on earth!

"Why were you afraid?" He asked.

Really! Why?!

You and I have stuff to do! Ephesians 2:10 says we have things to do that have been assigned to us from before the beginning of time! Nothing's gonna happen 'til they're done!

So even if your chances of dying in a plane crash are 1 in almost 100,000,000, if your work for Jesus isn't done, your chances just slid to zero in one kabillion!

Besides, if it had crashed between here and San Diego, I'd just go home! 

Or if our plane had been hit by lightning or an asteroid while above the clouds, I woulda been closer to His house than mine!