My control issues
Has anyone else noticed the significant amount of plane/helicopter incidences that have happened this summer? Maybe it's just Kristina and I noticing, but there seems to have been a lot.
I've tried to block it out of my memory because, to be honest, I've since become pretty scared to fly considering all these planes dropping. But the time is soon approaching where I'll have to be in the air for 28 hours (not all at once, of course) just to get back to Canada. There was one point in the summer when I was so afraid of this day of flying again, that the thought actually crossed my mind that there is still the 'ship across the ocean' option. Okay, I know, it was that bad. I was feeling like it'd be safer to take a ship home rather than fly. So, I've tried to block out all these memories of all the plane incidences just so I could better prepare for boarding one again.
And then today, at church, someone stood up and announced "I want to praise God that we are here safely because the flight yesterday from South Africa was a ROUGH ride". I thought to myself "Oh...must be Air Malawi and it was probably a bit of turbulence". After the service, I was talking with this woman and she said it was actually South African Airways (read: BIG JET for Blantyre's little runway) and the pilot clearly wasn't thinking straight and realized at the last minute that he had to land... He was still very high and going so fast, that he just dropped a bit, kept going, dropped some more, and then when they hit the tarmack, the plane was still going too fast that the plane started bouncing off the tarmack. Imagine: dropping in a big jet from the sky and then hitting the tarmack hard and bouncing this massive piece of metal off the tarmack hoping that the plane will be able to slow down enough before it gets stuck in the neighbouring field.
After such a rough landing the pilot said "well, you win some, you lose some" and that was all he had to offer as an apology. I asked what his name was in hopes that I dont have him when I fly out on South African Airways on Wednesday, but the lady didn't know his name. Not that I'd be able to do anything... "excuse me, I heard you had a rough landing the other day, perhaps I should HELP YOU land this plane". Obviously, I have no flying expertise to offer, but atleast I'd feel a little more in control. You see, every time I fly, I realize that I am not in control. That's why I love small bush planes or helicopters because I can see the pilot, and if need be, I can easily be in arms reach of all those control buttons. Again, even if I could reach the control buttons... I still wouldnt be able to do anything anyways.
But this is a good reminder. There are clearly times when we KNOW we're not in control and it's hard, but there's absolutely nothing we can do about it... so we throw our hands in the air and say "Alright God, I guess you really ARE in control of this situation anyways, so I'm just going to trust that it'll all be okay". And then there are other times when we THINK we are in control and it makes us feel safer... and this is bad because we start trusting in ourselves and our own abilities instead of God's more-powerful abilities.
So, this being said... I'm still scared about flying out on Wednesday but I guess there's nothing I can do about it anyway!
I've tried to block it out of my memory because, to be honest, I've since become pretty scared to fly considering all these planes dropping. But the time is soon approaching where I'll have to be in the air for 28 hours (not all at once, of course) just to get back to Canada. There was one point in the summer when I was so afraid of this day of flying again, that the thought actually crossed my mind that there is still the 'ship across the ocean' option. Okay, I know, it was that bad. I was feeling like it'd be safer to take a ship home rather than fly. So, I've tried to block out all these memories of all the plane incidences just so I could better prepare for boarding one again.
And then today, at church, someone stood up and announced "I want to praise God that we are here safely because the flight yesterday from South Africa was a ROUGH ride". I thought to myself "Oh...must be Air Malawi and it was probably a bit of turbulence". After the service, I was talking with this woman and she said it was actually South African Airways (read: BIG JET for Blantyre's little runway) and the pilot clearly wasn't thinking straight and realized at the last minute that he had to land... He was still very high and going so fast, that he just dropped a bit, kept going, dropped some more, and then when they hit the tarmack, the plane was still going too fast that the plane started bouncing off the tarmack. Imagine: dropping in a big jet from the sky and then hitting the tarmack hard and bouncing this massive piece of metal off the tarmack hoping that the plane will be able to slow down enough before it gets stuck in the neighbouring field.After such a rough landing the pilot said "well, you win some, you lose some" and that was all he had to offer as an apology. I asked what his name was in hopes that I dont have him when I fly out on South African Airways on Wednesday, but the lady didn't know his name. Not that I'd be able to do anything... "excuse me, I heard you had a rough landing the other day, perhaps I should HELP YOU land this plane". Obviously, I have no flying expertise to offer, but atleast I'd feel a little more in control. You see, every time I fly, I realize that I am not in control. That's why I love small bush planes or helicopters because I can see the pilot, and if need be, I can easily be in arms reach of all those control buttons. Again, even if I could reach the control buttons... I still wouldnt be able to do anything anyways.
But this is a good reminder. There are clearly times when we KNOW we're not in control and it's hard, but there's absolutely nothing we can do about it... so we throw our hands in the air and say "Alright God, I guess you really ARE in control of this situation anyways, so I'm just going to trust that it'll all be okay". And then there are other times when we THINK we are in control and it makes us feel safer... and this is bad because we start trusting in ourselves and our own abilities instead of God's more-powerful abilities.
So, this being said... I'm still scared about flying out on Wednesday but I guess there's nothing I can do about it anyway!
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