Turn off the afterburners

Growing up in St. Louis, we lived really close to McDonnell-Douglas (later bought out by Boeing). We would drive past it a lot going to church or whatever we were doing on that side of StL. There was this building that always intrigued me...no windows...seemed secretive. The sign in front said "Flight Simulation". I wanted in. I think I must have said that every time we drove by that place.

Well, guess what. My mom works at Boeing. At times I think she runs the place. And knowing the seemingly life-long dream of her son to get into the secretive Flight Simulation building, and more importantly into the actual simulators inside, she made it happen. I got to "play" for an hour in a F/A-18 Hornet flight simulator sometime a couple of years ago before coming to Poland. And man was it incredible!!

Sitting in this jet cockpit mockup, all the controls at my disposal ("What's this button?")...the throttle...the HUD...the buttons, knobs, switches, levers...oh, it was amazing. But you know what? I stunk!! The guy helping me kept setting up different scenarios so that I could get into some good 'ole air-to-air combat with some bogies...and I stunk! I shot one (of like 150) down. And thinking about it this morning, he must have handicapped it or something. Maybe it ran out of fuel or something.

My problem: always trying to go too fast. There was something about jamming that thruster down and going into afterburner that fascinated me. I want to fly...fast! And going Mach 1.8, or whatever, there was no way to keep sight of my targets. It was ridiculous. But after being told about 38 times to slow down, take a look around the "sky" and my instruments, I was able to spot them and pull them in closer to me again.

Reading James 4 this morning I was sitting thinking about how difficult it is to follow Jesus' example in life. This thought of the simulator came to mind. It's really a lot like that because it's not an idle target. The life of Christ is dynamic, moving us constantly to action. But I get into trouble when I begin going too fast. I throw myself into afterburner mode and immediately begin losing my target(s), the standards or desires that Jesus gives me to live out. But as he leads me to slow it down, take a look around, they come back into view again.

Don't know if you out there can relate to that metaphor. Maybe since you haven't flown a Hornet you can't truly understand (haha). Amidst all of the other challenges I have identified in my life recently, this morning I just felt challenged to slow down, turn off the afterburners, and take the time to really keep my eyes trained on Jesus, the absolute most important target of my life.