APPROACHING STORMS
When flying an aircraft toward an approaching a storm, any good pilot will avoid flying right into it. Instead, he or she will adjust the attitude of the aircraft to avoid the storm. The attitude of the plane is the aircraft’s orientation relative to the earth’s horizon. In other words, a good pilot will point the plane up to rise above the storm. Only a fool would point the nose down to go under the storm.
So with our attitude. When we face approaching storms, our attitude relative to our “earth’s horizon”, meaning our so-called normal, should take us above the coming storm; neither into them nor under them. We should not allow the storms of life to bring us down. Whether disappointments or challenges, illness or sorrow, pain or anxiety – whatever comes our way should be met with a positive attitude.
You know, by rising above the storm, you might even get ahead of it and use the winds as a tailwind to propel you further along. We can learn this from the birds of the air. An eagle, for example, uses the strong updraft created by rising warm air currents to rise high above raging storms. For us, the rising warm air currents are the Holy Spirit. When we trust in God, when we understand that he takes good care of us, then we can rise above storms with the warm updraft of the Holy Spirit of God.
I am convinced that, in life, it is nowhere near as important what happens to us as it is how we react to it. And it is our attitude that will have a critical effect on how we will deal with the storms of life.