When John F. Kennedy Jr.‘s plane crashed into the water in the growing darkness, many flight experts talked about how pilots in bad weather, in the darkness of moonless night, and in poor visibility can experience a sensation known as vertigo. They cannot tell by looking out their cockpit windows whether their plane is flying at the right altitude, going up, or going down. They become disoriented and lose sight of the relationship of the plane to the ground. Even more alarming, pilots are often not even aware they are experiencing this problem. The only safe way to guide their plane in these types of conditions is to trust the plane’s instruments. The pilot must guide the plane by what the instruments tell him is reality, not what he or she perceives or feels.
For Christians, worship is for us what those instruments are to the pilot. It’s a time when we can take our eyes off the confusing, misleading input our senses are receiving from the world outside, and we can concentrate on the truths we can trust to guide us safely to our destination.
Jesus modeled this idea. In Luke 4:16 we are told “Jesus traveled to Nazareth, where he had grown up. On the Sabbath day he went to the synagogue, as he always did, and stood up to read.”
The next time you think you don’t need to take time to worship, remember all those who have lost their lives because they didn’t think they needed their instruments to fly their planes!
