Change planes.

We were halfway to our destination when the pilot’s voice crackled over the loudspeaker: “We’re experiencing a mechanical issue in the cockpit, so we’ve been ordered to return to Portland and change planes. We’ve turned around and are now heading back North. We’ll find another aircraft and get you re-boarded as soon as possible. We apologize for the delay.”

You can imagine how well this went over with all the passengers. Groans, murmurings and impatient sighs drifted through the plane. Unbeknownst to us the plane had turned around and headed back the way it came. We waited in the terminal, eventually re-boarded, and arrived 1 ½ hours later than planned. While everyone griped I couldn’t help but smile. I almost felt like apologizing to the other passengers, because I had a sneaking suspicion that God had turned us around just for me.

In order to make it to our destination we had to change. Specifically, we had to change planes. I was on my way to a women’s retreat. The topic?

Change.

We all want to change. We make New Year’s Resolutions, goals, challenges. We modify our behavior, turn over a new leaf, get a fresh start. All these things are great, but do they last? We know statistically that 80% of New Year’s Resolutions are ditched by Valentine’s Day. Why? Because change is hard.

There’s a reason the passengers complained about having to change. It was an inconvenience. It messed up their plans. It delayed them. In short, it was a hassle.

Changing, really changing, is always an inconvenience. It messes up our plans. It delays us. It’s a hassle. But why did the passengers change planes?

Because they had to. The old plane, the old way of going wasn’t working any more.

Because the old M.O. wasn’t working anymore.

I’m grateful the pilot chose to turn around. Not only did it provide a perfect illustration for the very thing I wanted God to do (!), but it meant getting a better aircraft that would successfully take us where we wanted to go.

But some of us refuse to change planes, huh? Sometimes, when we face a mechanical error in our lives, we simply ignore and keep flying. We duct-tape together the broken piece. We put a blanket over the control panel so we can’t see the flashing red warning light. We put in ear-plugs to ignore the beeping alarms. We’re so bent on our direction that we don’t stop and turn around so we can change. We ignore the alarm, then the engine quitting, then a wing falling off, and the next thing you know, we’re plummeting into the ground in an epic crash.

Then we ask God why He allowed the disaster.

Sweet friends, God’s will is that we would change. Be changed, transformed, renewed, by the power of His Spirit. Those little problems in our lives are the red flashing lights, the alarms that sound and say, “Go back to Portland. Change planes.” We can stop, turn around, and ask God to change us before proceeding, or we can stubbornly press ahead ignoring all the signs, setting ourselves up for an emotional and spiritual crash-and-burn. (Anybody ever had one of those? Me too.)

Are there any warning signs in your life right now? Some small thing that’s malfunctioning? No matter how small (our plane turned around because the windshield-heater wasn’t working), it’s still cause for pause, return, change. Chances are that little malfunction is God’s little nudge that something’s not right. We need to be like my pilot, accept the delay, hassle, inconvenience, turn around …

and change.

 {Thank you, God, for the sacred mundane,how the details of life are Your whispers.

Thank you all for reading!}