On July 16, 1999 my wife and son and I were returning from a week at the beach....Ocean City, New Jersey. I remember remarking to my wife as we passed through Philadelphia that it was hazy. I recalled that the next day when the news reported that John Kennedy Jr. and his wife and sister-in-law had died in a plane crash in the Atlantic Ocean on their way from Fairfield, New Jersey to Martha's Vineyard...a short plane trip ENE...east-northeast.....mostly following the coastline.
At the time of his death...his magazine....George....was not doing well. He had started it in collaboration with publisher David Pecker....the same David Pecker who was a witness....granted witness immunity....in one of Donald Trump's trials. Pecker was already publishing a magazine called....Trump Style....(not to be confused with Hugh Hefner's two-issue 1957 magazine of comics and satire called....Trump)....Trump Style was for quite a while given away free to customers on Trump properties. Donald Trump appeared on the cover of George on its February/March 2000 issue....not long before the magazine folded.
As most of us are aware of....the final verdict on JFK Jr.'s crash was blamed on the concept of....spatial disorientation....where it is not uncommon for pilots to lose proper perception on what their plane is doing when they are flying in poor visibility conditions. JFK JR. was not certified to fly by his instruments. He had to fly by what he could see....which probably was not good at all....just as I remarked to my wife how hazy it was on our trip home from New Jersey.
Are you....as a Christian....certified to....fly....if you will....by your instrumentation....God's living word to us? By this I mean when everything is bleak....and you cannot seem to see where you are going....are you able to open the Bible....and read....and begin to navigate safely again?
This is not an easy thing that I describe....not if you are really in trouble. Sometimes we can sit back and do our very best to look over our entire situation....and still not make the best or the right decisions! I know this by experience to be the case....but it also appears to be the case in much of evangelicalism right now.....to some of us anyway.....as we look around at our nation....and the church....and the lack of discernment almost everywhere....and if you are like I am you can become at times discouraged....but thanks be to God....the instructions are clear and perspicuous....easy to follow....if only we pick them up to read!
So if you are not....certified....then open that book every chance you get. Do not wait for even a day. Get instruction before you solo. Avoid the night flights until you are comfortable. Be tested and keep up with your recertifications....or biblically speaking...."Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect" Romans 12:2 ESV
