The world was taken back last month when a plane crashed into the French Alps killing all 150 aboard. While all plane crashes of this magnitude make front-page news, this one was even more chilling as it appears the co-pilot intentionally took the plane down in a suicide / mass murder.
When I fly I assume the pilots will do all they can to get
me to my destination. I assume they are
all of sound mind and body. I assume
that all pilots are like my hometown's own local hero Captain “Sully” Sullenberger who
six years earlier employed all his flying skills to save his passengers. I don’t often give much thought to who is
in the cockpit, but I guess it does matter.
As strange as it may seem, in the aftermath of this disaster
a popular bumper sticker from my youth came to mind – God is my co-pilot. Of course, pilot or co-pilot is never used in
the Bible as a metaphor for God, but I guess it serves as a modern day
equivalent of The Lord is my Shepherd.
It suggests a confidence that Christians have in God that He will lead
them safely to their destination.
I suppose that most of the people who read this blog have
already to some degree handed over the controls to God, and you’re welcome to
read on, but what I have to say next is more relevant to those who have
not. Yet, I suppose I am calling all of
us to give some thought to where our lives are going and who is in the cockpit,
because it really does matter.
The 17th century mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal
offered a defense of Christianity in what has come to be known as Pascal’s
Wager. Essentially Pascal posits that
all human beings place a bet that God either exists or doesn’t exist. If you bet on His existence and you’re wrong,
you really haven’t lost anything. But,
if He does exist you stand to gain everything.
If you wager that He doesn’t exist and you’re right, you gain nothing in
view that there is nothing beyond this world.
Yet, if He does exist, you stand to lose everything. In a sense, the wager boils down to these two
things: is there any destination to life
and, if so, who is in your cockpit.
We’re all on a flight we call life. Some believe it is a flight to nowhere. The flight itself is all we have and there is
no destination. Enjoy your peanuts and
complimentary beverage, because that’s all there is. No need for a pilot because there is no
destination. That is a philosophy of
life. A sad one in my estimation, but nonetheless
one that many have chosen.
On the other hand, there are many more who believe that this
life is journey to a greater and longer-lasting destination. In fact, every human culture has had some
sense of a destination, an after-life.
Yet so many people give no thought to who is in the cockpit. We live with a sense of destination but act
like there is none. We are lulled into a
quiet confidence that all life philosophies, like all pilots, can be
trusted. But perhaps they can’t. At the very least, shouldn’t we all check who
is in the cockpit before we entrust our lives to them?
The voice recorders from that Germanwings flight brought to
light the harrowing cries of the pilot as it became more obvious that the plane
was going down. He was heard pounding on
the locked cockpit door pleading, “Open the d—n door!” I couldn’t help but recall the eerily similar
words of Jesus – “I stand at the door and knock.”
I guess it matters who is in the cockpit. It really does. Our very lives depend on it.
