The Eye of the Needle

To land a jet aircraft safely on the rolling, moving flight deck of a super carrier at sea within the short space of 600 feet is to thread the eye of the needle every time. Ten thousand times ten thousand this dangerous drama has been repeated in the history of American carrier aviation. No other nation on earth can boast the same accomplishment. It is simply extraordinary.

Allow me the power of analogy utilizing the lens of carrier operations. Imagine now that the flight deck represents your safe haven in life, the place you return to again and again for meaning and stability. Furthermore, the flight deck represents the source and script of God’s mission for your life. God is the Air Boss who catapults and launches every new mission, every new event in your life.

God’s script for your life is better than any self-imagined, self-imposed script you could write. God’s loving script for you is a miraculous script written by His own hand, an extraordinary script beyond your wildest dreams and imaginations. Without God’s script engaging your life, the bolters and the wave-offs in your life’s vocation will be frequent and painful and the traps by the arresting cables of God’s grace on the safe haven of His celestial flight deck will be few.

What do you really want out of life? Retirement from active duty does not have to be a melancholy loss of meaning followed by an endless string of meandering boring days. God’s extraordinary script for your life is etched into His promises, filled with excitement, centered in Christ and discovered by faith. God has promised, “I will never fail you nor forsake you.” — Hebrews 13:6

Without God’s script leading your life, your bolters will be inevitable, your fuel will run low, and the deadly imminent danger of ditching your plane into the turbulent angry sea will always be present. With God’s script unfolding the days of your life, you will conclude every mission safely upon the celestial flight deck of God, trapped by the cable of God’s arresting grace, every time, all the time. No bolters, no wave-offs, no crash and burn. God alone threads the needle.

Seek His will. Discover His script. Believe His promises. You have only one life to live and one life to give back to your Creator who is eager to display His extraordinary script through you.

To God be all the glory.