Northwest Flight 188 from San Diego to Minneapolis, Minnesota, an Airbus 320, lost communications with the ground for over an hour, and overshot the Minneapolis airport by 150 miles before air traffic control reestablished contact.
You can read about it here: http://www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=81316 It was suspected that the pilots were sleeping, or engaged in a heated discussion. After interviewing the pilots, it turn out that their story is that they were each working on their lap tops. Thankfully, the FAA has grounded these pilots, and the airline has fired them. But this story got me thinking. How does this happen? The answer: Autopilot. They are flying a giant airplane filled with people and they have become complacent. They have been to flying school, passed exams, flown countless hours...they've seen and done it all. There is no reason to worry; no cause for concern. The passengers likely now disagree.
I am not relating this story to raise anxiety the next time you fly. But, I did think that we often treat the serious matters of the Christian heart and life with the same flippancy. The Word of God is opened to us and we yawn and think, "I've seen that before." We hear sound preaching and may think, "I really like he how well he preached that." "I've been a Christian for ___ years. I'm doing pretty well." We often operate in our daily lives without thinking. We go on spiritual auto pilot. Like the Airbus that struggles to get off the ground, but then finds its optimum altitude and speed for autopilot, we are often guilty of being zealous at the new life given us early in our Christian lives, but unaffected by the Gospel as our spiritual age progresses. We need to be digging ever deeper into the mysteries of the Gospel by careful study and application of God's Word, but instead we become content with the outward cleansing of our speech and appearance. We walk around in Christian circles speaking Christian-ese saying pious things, but neglect to have meaningful interaction with our great God and Savior Jesus Christ through His Word and effective, furtive prayer. We reform ourselves in our daily goings-on by being trustworthy workers (not stealing time from the company like those people). We pride ourselves in being involved parents, committed spouses, reliable Sunday school workers and deacons, all the while casting but a mere token of appreciation in God's direction. The whole system becomes one of satisfaction when we find ourselves handling the pressure well, and sef-loathing when it stars to crumble.
We simply are not thinking; or, perhaps not on the right things. We can become so focused on the temporal issues of life, that we never really consider eternal matters. This is not right thinking. Paul emphasized thinking rightly in chapter 2 of his letter to Titus.
(vs.2)Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance.
And again in vs. 6:
Likewise urge the young men to be sensible;
(vss.11-13)For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,12instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age,13looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.
It just does not make sense to live the Christian life on autopilot.
