I like to keep my feet planted on the ground. If I am about to board a plane, I don the wrist bands, have my travel sickness tablets and delegate the minding of the children to my ever agreeable wife. I sit and stare into the distance, hoping I will not experience the 15-hour flight of constant ‘throwing-up’ from Sydney to Los Angeles Airport that I endured years earlier.
Having the opportunity then to fly in a four-seater VH-SVA Cessna, next to The Salvation Army Flying Padre (Captain David Shrimpton) was a very surreal yet somewhat frightening experience. The adrenaline was pumping as we flew over the tip of the Northern-Territory landscape with its croc-infested, box jelly-fish inhabited waterways along with its stunning native flora and fauna.
Suddenly the thought hit me. We love to soar.
Even as children we love to pretend we are Superman flying through the midnight air towards our destination. We imagine we are all-powerful and we can soar above the mountaintops and sing that the hills are alive.
Then life hits us.
Emails tell us that we have not finished the paperwork correctly. People, who we thought were mates, tell us how pathetic we are. Someone tells us to not give up our day job. Others criticise us for not making the right choice. Even some family members want nothing to do with us.
We forget how to soar.
The picture of us flying in the sunset, without a care in the world, becomes a distant memory. The desires to rise above the circumstances that drag us down seem to be a losing battle.
What happens next is we live life with a mediocre attitude. We give up trying to do better, because it is too hard. Day by day we lose the capacity or willingness to dream what could be, because we are stuck in what is. We simply plant our feet on the ground and we stop soaring.
How many times have you heard of people with that kind of mindset?
“I’ve given up trying to change the culture of my workplace, because it’s just a waste of time!”
“I’m just going to stick it out for six months and see what happens.”
“She’s not talking to me; I’m not going to even bother.”
We must recapture the spark within us that allows us to dream. The still small voice that says we should give it another shot. The inkling we have to believe for a better future.
The Bible says that those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength and that they will soar on wings like eagles. This picture encapsulates a vision far richer than the pessimistic, mediocre mindset that so easily entangles Australian culture.
We are called to soar.
Now, I may not be very good with handling motion sickness, and at times want to keep my feet on the ground. Though, when it comes to the challenges and opportunities that life affords me, may I always attempt to soar like an eagle until I land at the appropriate destination that God has for me.
6/2/13
Published in the WarCry (Salvation Army Australia Southern Territory) in early March 2013.
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