May 3rd, 2013

Hey Everyone! 

Hope you've had an awesome week! I know I did!! Last week, I was in Houston for a retreat for all the folks who reach out to high school and college kids through Young Life there, including our very own Triple C'er, Erica Sender!! How God is using her down in the Lone Star State!

Then, I got to spend a couple of awesome days with Charlie and Sarah and the kids in Houston…What a blast! We laughed, played, walking, talking…We even went to the art museum and saw a Picasso exhibit (Gotta say, I seriously don't get it!) 

Only tough part was the coming and going!

I drove to Nashville to take the Southwest Airlines flight to Houston. Southwest people were super nice, they joke around, and you can check a bag for free. The flight was not long and on time. Only problem was that during the flight, we were going 300 mph! And we were 30000 feet above the earth! That's 5.6818 miles!! 

The guy beside me went right to sleep before we even started to taxi! Did it the whole way! 

I was praying to our Lord 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 Mother 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, homeboy…"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 my seat mate in the Southwest flight from McGee Tyson to Houston Hobby Internat'l! Sleeping! Did it almost the whole way! and He woulda too if His friends hadn't waked Him!

"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 Houston, I'd just go home! If our plane had been hit by lightning or an asteroid, I woulda been closer to His house than mine!