Open Range 2024 | All HTL Outdoor Event

Plane Flights and Missing Deer

The flight path from Bergstrom International Airport goes just over our house on many days, and from the early morning hours to late into the night you can hear the passenger jets pushing up to altitude. By the time they are over our house the landing gear is now up and they are just beginning the climb. I almost always stop and watch them, even if just for a second. They amaze me. Thinking about the people on the planes intrigues me.

On the days the lift off pattern is not over our house, the landing pattern brings the jets from everywhere, over our neighborhood in a big arc around to the airport 20 miles away. Again I am caught up in the amazement of these huge flying machines moving through the air in what seems like an effortless glide.

This morning I was thinking about a friend of mine who travels the world for work. Asia, South America, France, Germany, everywhere. I thought what most folks think when they hear a job description like his: “Wow, that is the best job ever.” I stayed in that thought as I sat on the porch and the sound of an airliner leaving from here to somewhere faded. If I think all the way through that idea of his job being a glamorous one, I get to the reality of it. Lots of time away from home. Missed baseball games or dance recitals. The uncomfortable airplane seats hour after hour in the air. The crowds, the hard work preparing for days of meetings and business social-life.

I had a lot of years growing up that I yearned for meaning, to do something big. If you asked me early on, my goal was to become a millionaire. Money equaled success. That is not the case today. I don’t think that if everyone quit travelling for work that the world would instantly become a better place, all the flowers would smell pretty and every family wound would be healed. I know there are times we are called out to be away from our families and do our jobs; I do it. Work provides the funding that pays the bills, sends our kids to college, and makes rent payments. It is a rare life that requires little or no distractions from our personal lives with no work. It is surely not mine.

Luke 10:38-42 says, “Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to His teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to Him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

Can life be hard, yes. Can we mess up and have to ask for forgiveness or wake up and try again to do better, yes. If you’re not experiencing hardships or the up’s and downs life is, you are not in the battle. A fighter trains but still gets hit, a hunter hunts but can spook their game or miss a shot. Even Peter, one of the guys who walked with Jesus everyday for three years, one of the guys who camped with him night after night talking with Jesus around the campfire till the wee hours, messed up. But like Peter, Jesus comes to us, we are forgiven and we get to push reset.

Are we truly looking at what we have in front of us and making sure we don’t miss the life God placed us in. Do we truly see our wives and kids as the crucial element of this life. We have to make sure we seek His direction and not just squeeze into a seat on the plane, pull our chair up to our desk or roll out the cords on the job site and endure the misery, claiming the discomfort and heart ache as the life He has for us. He wants you to live an amazing life. He wants us to know joy and love, happiness and a relationship with Him that blows you away.

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