Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
Hours before Bob Jones passed away he shared with a friend about the strategy needed in the future for church leadership. He said, “Church leaders need to study the 401, not reject the 401 and build on the 401.” At the time my friend did not know what he was talking about.
A couple of weeks later he was watching a Netflix show on aviation disasters. He watched one show called “Fatal Distraction.” It was the story of Eastern Air Lines 401. He knew right away this was what Bob was referring to.
On Dec. 29, 1972, 101 people were killed when Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 crashed in the Florida Everglades. The flight crew was about to execute its routine night landing when they noticed the landing gear indicator light didn’t come on after they deployed the wheels.
The crew became so preoccupied with what they thought was a malfunction in the landing gear that they failed to recognize that the autopilot had been inadvertently disengaged. The plane lost altitude and crashed.
The captain focused on the problem. The first officer focused on the problem. The second officer focused on the problem. Even a hitch hiking technical officer focused on the problem.
Unfortunately, in doing so, nobody focused on the primary mission: bringing 176 people safely to their destination. Instead, everyone focused on the status of a $12 light bulb. It turned out that the landing gear deployed just fine; the light bulb had simply burned out.
The pilots and flight engineer were trained to scan their instruments routinely in order to see if there were any circumstances that require their attention. Unfortunately, in this instance, the cockpit crew was so focused on the nose gear situation that they failed to follow one of the basic rules of a piloting an aircraft: keep an eye on your instruments.
The crew failed to observe what their airplane was clearly trying to tell them. The pilots were not flying the airplane. They put too much trust in the autopilot to fly the plane. There was no delegation of responsibilities to address the problem. There was nothing wrong with the airplane. Human error crashed the plane.
Here is some of what I took away from this tragic story.
1. The good along with the bad can be the enemy of the best. There will always be problems that need to be addressed. Jesus said, “The poor we will always have with us.” (Mark 14:3-9) That does not mean we should allow them to distract us to a point we forsake the main thing. This applies to all areas of our lives; relationships, finances, homes, business, you name it. The good and the bad have the potential to fatally distract us.
2. Pay attention to your God given instruments. In every area, God has given us gauges that inform us of what is happening. In our spiritual lives we have peace, grace, faith, hope, love and joy. In our souls we have natural emotions such as fear, anxiety, happiness, anger, jealousy, resentment, etc. In our bodies we have weight, temperature, fatigue, aches, etc. Your instruments are there to serve you, let them.
3. Trust the Lord at all times. At the end of the day we can’t put our trust in anything other than the Lord Himself. If we trust our gifting, calling, methods, bank accounts, government and so on to fly our plane we will slowly and unknowingly lose altitude and crash.
4. Share Power. We are to be a part of a team. It is the New Testament model for life and ministry, period. There will always be captains in the Lord’s kingdom, but that does not mean the captain controls and does everything. Delegate and let those whom God has joined with you do their job. Husbands share power with your wife. Parents teach your children how to make decisions and choices. It takes security in ones identity and calling to share power. If you don’t share power you can’t effectively do what you should do and neither can those around you.
Many Blessings, BW