Turbulence

Sleep is a great thing. I love sleep. Not just because I've had a bad day or because I may have been deprived of it previous night. No, for me sleep is a great thing for one very good reason...dreams! I hate to brag, but I am a world-class dreamer. I dream many dreams a night. One or two early on and then about a thousand in the last half hour before the alarm goes off. One dream in particular recurs often...thematically speaking. I dream about flying. Usually it involves me lying on a broken down cardboard box, flying carpet style, and the wind catches me as I soar over my neighborhood, which isn't really my neighborhood just one I dreamed up where most every house has a pool, except mine. At first I have quite a bit of trouble controlling my flying box. Eventually, though, I get the hang of it, and man can I fly. So for me flying is another great thing. Usually.

Recently I was on a flight that was NOT a great thing. After sitting on the runway for a couple of hours waiting for a storm to blow over, we finally took off and flew directly into the storm that just passed us. This particular plane was not a big stable 747 but one that had a guy who was responsible for winding the rubber band enough to get us to our destination. Talk about turbulence.

The reason for the trip in the first place was to visit a soldier with cancer. He looks toward his future and sees storms. Grey skies, lightening, thunder, and very little calm. For him, life is turbulent. You may never get cancer. But you may have marriage trouble, financial trouble, or live in a war zone in the middle of the desert. That's turbulence. And for the one flying through it, it's never fun. Sometimes it's sickening. But that doesn't have to be all there is. For the child of God there are calm skies and sunshine just beyond the clouds.

King David understood turbulence and the peace that follows life's storms when he wrote in Psalm 23, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” Clear skies are just beyond that cloud if you’ll let Jesus fly you there.