Don't Get To Comfortable

"Just as you do not know the path of the wind and how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do not know the activity of God who makes all things" (Ecc. 11:5)

Hey Gang:  My brother was one unique dude.  When a little squeezer, barely old enough to walk, he saw an airplane fly over our house; at that time was very rare sight.  We were living in the Appalachian Mountains of Pennsylvania; some would say we lived so far back in the sticks that they had to pump sunshine to us and even the hoot-owls carried knapsacks.

The plane made such an impression on him that he made a decision, one day he would fly one of those things. He did  become a pilot and served our Country for 30 years.  The sight of the plane also built a fire of restlessness in his heart t which was not satisfied until my mother pinned his wings on him when, in the mid 40's,  he graduated and became a full-fledged 'flight jockey'.  For more than fifty years he never deviated from that very early decision to spend as much time in the sky as possible. 

But, my life was one of contrast to his.  I did not have a clue what God had in mind for me.  I floundered at everything I tried to do, barely making it through high school and flunking out of college three times.  The Dean called me in one day and said, "Son, at the rate you are going it will take you seventeen years to graduate.  I fooled him, I did it in twelve years.

After getting my first 'walking-papers' from college, I joined the Air Force and somehow, by the grace of God, I was chosen for Air Traffic Control School, one of the top career fields in the Air Force.  I  became a very good Air Traffic Controller.  When it came time for discharge I seriously considered re- upping and making it a career ....but God said... "Don't get to comfortable!"

After discharge I was accepted as a Federal Aviation Controller and, once again, worked my way up very rapidly in the system.  We were seriously considering purchasing a house and I would settle in to being an air traffic controller for the my working days,but God said... "Don't get to comfortable!".

When the government moved our center to Cleveland we felt God was saying it was time for the next step and I returned to college, this time graduating with a much better record.  On graduation day the Dean, who gave me my waking papers eight years earlier, was very proud that his seventeen year projection turned out to be only twelve years.

I thought that God had me programmed to go to California and earn my Master's. Seems I misread that message, too;  I ended up getting a doctors degree in practical training -  how to reach down deep into the hearts and souls of hurting children as a counselor in a  juvenile hall.  I was being considered to become the director of a brand new facility that would have moved me up several notches on the status and pay ladder.. "God once again said.. "Don't get to comfortable!"   

Soooo, the message I learned,  'what God has in mind for you may be totally different than the road you think you are to travel'. (But God doesn't waste any of His training!)     Jesus, in the sermon on the Mount,  gave us a far better plan than flying by the seat of our pants, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you" (Matt. 7:7). 

  Blessings,

  Gramps