“…But the just shall live by his faith.” Habakkuk 2:4

A Near-Stall

Walk His Way Revisited

I read this in the Record Searchlight a few weeks ago: “A plane that crashed into a house in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, killing six people, showed no indication of engine trouble, but it had slowed to a near-stall just before it came down.”

This immediately struck me with some spiritual applications, and caused me to ask myself a few questions.

Would you say that you have a vital, living, active faith? Your engine is healthy, you’ve filled your tanks with fuel (God’s Word), and you are headed somewhere with Him. You have fine-tuned your engine (your heart and mind) so that you are strong enough to finish the flight.

Or are you, like the plane in the news, at a near-stall? Are your faith tanks empty? Were you unprepared for the turbulence? Did the life-storm toss you around more than you thought it would? Is something keeping you from gaining altitude with the Lord, slowing your engine with pain and problems? Have you neglected to maintain the moving parts of your faith-engine?

Or, even scarier, are in you a free-fall with your faith-engine completely shut down? You are headed for a crash. You are too tired to go on; your faith has died; you’ve got nothing left to give. You are no longer paying attention to faith because you’re just in survival mode.

The news article went on to say this: “The private jet had slowed to just over 100 miles per hour…” That’s fast—but not fast enough to stay aloft. Similarly, we can find ourselves “busy” with the things of the Lord, thinking we are doing fine, until one day we find we are empty and dry, doing nothing to bear fruit, and ready to crash.

I can imagine the control tower had attempted to reach the pilot, giving emergency instructions, perhaps sending help and new coordinates so he could get his bearings and land safely.

Our Father, in the Control Tower, has written the manual for a healthy life, but of course it is up to us to consult it and live by it. He continues to broadcast instructions through His Holy Spirit, counseling us to make adjustments, helping us find our way in the fog and storm, warning of impending danger. Can you hear Him?

We never know when we are headed for the landing strip, our final breath. If we find ourselves in a free-fall with a dead engine, ask the Lord to grab our hands and lift us. If we feel a stall coming on, take drastic measures to re-gain altitude by reading His Word, counseling with godly mentors, and staying in close contact with the Lord. If we are too sick, or in despair, pain or grief, it’s time to hand Him the controls so we won’t crash. And when we are healthy, let’s be prepared and willing to help others finish well.

Lord, we want to have a living faith. Warn us if we get close to stalling. Sound the alarms when we are falling, that we may make adjustments. By Your grace and with Your help, we will finish well. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.