"HIGH FLIGHT" -- Devotional for October 8, from "Good Seeds"

(DEAR READER: I'm writing from Japan, having lost 16 hours in my flight over the Pacific -- and nearly lost my teeth in the rough weather as we skirted a typhoon over Japan between Tokyo and Osaka. This entry was written in the sky, inspired by the poem "High Flight" which I had purposely brought along to read en route. Quotes from the poem are in bold). I've had a wonderful reunion with Karen, and with some old Japanese friends, and am staying quite busy in a delightful balance between ministry, relationship-building, and enjoying Japanese culture and God's creation. The typhoon washed the atmosphere and environment, and everybody said I brought California weather with me, as we've had some amazing blue sky days with a minimum of humidity. I've learned to say, Subarashi hi deska" - meaning, "What a beautiful day!" Though you can almost see my white knuckles in this entry, can you also see that God is good, continuing to take care of His own!)

Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not get tired; they will walk and not become weary. (Isaiah 40:31)

“Oh I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,” wrote the young pilot-poet, John Gillespie Magee Jr. Well, I have done so, too, though happily not at the helm of my flying machine as was he, but as a simple passenger. This son of missionary parents postponed his Yale scholarship to fly and fight against the Evil Axis as a member of the Spitfire Squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force. “And danced the skies on laughter silvered wings. Sunward I’ve climbed and joined the tumbled mirth of sun-split clouds.” Though still in his youth, he was one who “waited on the Lord,” renewing his strength in Him, and as a “vigorous young man” did with his plane “a hundred things you have not dreamed of.” Now, I have no dream of “wheeling and soaring and swinging high in the sunlit silence.” Indeed, my goal and prayer is to keep a straight course, survive this typhoon, and land safely in Japan. I’ll leave the thrill of the ride to somebody else! I’m happy to have a Pilot higher up past the heavens, who’s got His hands on my pilot further up – in the cockpit – as they, together, deftly “fling this eager craft through the footless halls of air.” Nevertheless, how well I know that waiting on the Lord as I now do is no guarantee of a safe earthly landing. Back in 1941 that young pilot went unscathed throughout his whole time of training, even though he’d “topped the windswept heights with easy grace, where never lark, or even eagle, flew.” How high was that? 5,000 feet? 10,000 feet? Try 30,000 feet, from whence I pen my prose! But the time came, all too soon, before his first combat mission – before even his 20th birthday – when he climbed “up, up, the long, delirious, burning blue” – for the last time! He met his untimely death during a final training flight, but not before he had “trod, with silent, lifting mind, the high untrespassed sanctity of space, put out his hand, and touched the face of God!” How long must one live to truly live? He was a young man presumably with his whole life ahead of him; but one day, as he flew, he just kept on flying – like Enoch just kept on walking – right into the presence of God. I, too, would not outlive my faith in God or my exuberance for life and His creation. I have already long outlasted that young man in years, but please, God, though I may not be flying any more – or even running – may I keep walking with You, and believing in You. And yet I still would fly where never lark or eagle flew. I, too, would reach out, and with my hand and heart, touch the face of God!