Why I like Turbulence

Over the airplane loud speaker comes a calm voice from the cockpit, “Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve turned on the fasten seatbelt sign. We received word that there may be some bumpy air ahead.” Anxious flyers immediately think, “uh oh,” and grip their arm rest a little tighter. Then there are odd people like me who think excitedly, “let the adventure begin!”

Before you think I’m totally off my rocker, I will freely admit that I dislike some of the consequences of turbulence. For example, may years ago I was on an international flight and was absolutely starving. The flight crew had delayed serving us a meal because the turbulence was so strong. They finally managed to get down the aisle with our food but once I had it in front of me, I could barely get it on the fork much less in my mouth. It was like an invisible hand kept grabbing my arm and pulling it away from me the moment my fork got anywhere close to my mouth.

All of that to say that I do find that turbulence can be inconvenient, but I don’t find it to be scary. In fact, I will often giggle a little when the plane dips a bit causing my stomach to drop. It feels like a roller coaster to me. My husband always looks at me in total disbelief that I can be laughing during turbulence.

I guess I can be lighthearted about it because I don’t equate turbulence with crashing. Could that be mere ignorance you ask? Good question. I wondered that myself, so I looked it up and found an incredibly helpful article on a blog called, Patrick Smith’s Ask the Pilot, that I will quote throughout this post. Read it here. As it turns out, “…a plane cannot be flipped upside-down, thrown into a tailspin, or other wise flung from the sky by even the mightiest gust or air pocket.” In fact, the number of crashes from turbulence in all of aviation history can be counted on one hand.

Though turbulence can be annoying (spilling your coffee, luggage shifting, not being able to get up and go to the bathroom when you want…), “it is normal.” Turbulence is something passengers expect when flying on a plane but from a pilot’s perspective, it’s really more of a “convenience issue, not a safety issue.”

I can’t help but see a number of parallels between turbulence while flying and turbulence while living our lives.  One of those parallels is that turbulence is normal. As Christians, we know that we are bound to experience moments of turbulence in our lives. I’m not talking about life-threatening things, but things that are inconvenient, disruptive, annoying. James 1:2 tells us to “consider it pure joy” when we “face trials of many kinds.”

How then do we respond to turbulence in our Christian lives? Do we dread or fear it while we are in the midst of it? Or should we take a different perspective?

One of the main reasons I don’t mind turbulence on a plane is because I trust the pilot. I believe he is trained, equipped and qualified. If I liken that to my everyday life, in moments where I’m experiencing turbulence, do I trust God as my Pilot? Clearly there is no one better to fly than He, but am I willing to place my trust (my life) in Him when things get bumpy?

According to the article I mentioned above, sometimes pilots will change altitude for smoother conditions in the interest of comfort for their passengers. In my experience, God doesn’t tend to do that when I’m in the midst of turbulent times. I get the sense that He’s not as concerned about my comfort as He is my faith, trust and obedience–even if it feels like I’m plummeting.

While flying on a plane in the middle of turbulence, it can often feel like you are falling thousands of feet. However, in the cockpit, they only “see a twitch on the altimeter,” and you probably dropped a mere 10-20 feet. The pilots might very well say that the drop was almost undetectable on their instruments.

What an amazing illustration of our perspective verses God’s perspective! We might be going through some turbulence in our lives that feels so severe and yet it doesn’t actually reflect reality. Now that is in no way to diminish our feelings, but sometimes our feelings are dictated by what we think is happening instead of what is actually happening.

Did you know that “Planes are engineered to take a remarkable amount of punishment and that they can withstand an extreme amount of stress…?” Again, I find that to be such an appropriate parallel to our lives. We, too, can be resilient, withstanding an extreme amount of stress without falling apart. Why? Because the Lord is our strength. Isaiah 33:2 puts it well, “Lord, be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress.”

Not only can planes withstand an extreme amount of stress, they can also realign when shoved from their position in space. In fact, their nature is to return there. Isn’t that incredible? I feel like the same is true for us. 

Turbulence, or disruptive circumstances in our lives can cause us to feel like we’ve been pushed out of our comfort zone or our normal “flying” altitude, if you will. I recall a time when I was in a leadership position and trying to help a large group of people through a really big transition. Unfortunately, not everyone liked change or the way it was happening, and let’s just say things got really turbulent for me. That turbulence pushed me way out of my comfort zone as a leader. Eventually, after much prayer, difficult conversations and a lot of help from those around me, God got me realigned.

As I continue to experience moments of turbulence in my life, and as you do, my prayer for us is that we would remember the following:

• Turbulence is normal and to be expected
• We can, and should always trust our Pilot
• What we feel is happening may not represent reality
• God will help us realign

Let us go and be radiant, even in the midst of turbulence.