Why Flying Helps Bring Eternal Perspective
Do you struggle to see life through God's perspective? You're not alone. But here are some ways you can regain your focus.
If you've read my devotional for more than a few months, you know that one of my favorite maxims is Mark Batterson's line "Change of Place x Change of Pace = Change of Perspective."
This week, I'm putting this into practice by traveling to Cincinnati and Toronto as I meet with friends, family, and authors. It's a bit of a vacation, meets family, meets work adventure.
One of my favorite parts of times like this is that it breaks me out of the norm. Yesterday, after meeting with a potential new author at Bowtie Cafe, I spent an hour walking with my kids to the park, looking at the fall leaves (Cincinnati is awesome this time of year), and watching them have fun on the swings.
But another thing I love about traveling across the country is getting on a plane. I'm still the guy who, when every other sane person on board has their shades pulled down to block out the sun, is still craning his head to watch takeoffs and landings.
I love looking at "flyover country," with the open fields, the roads that feel like they should be straight but have a mysterious curve, and spotting random farmers who decide to put a three-acre go-kart track in their backyard.
Greater Thoughts
Flying always reminds me that there are so many people in this world and that my problems—however large they might seem—are so small in comparison. In some ways, flying is a bit of a spiritual experience because it's a reality check that God's perspective is far greater than anything I can imagine. As God says in Isaiah 55:8-9,
“My thoughts are not your thoughts,
and your ways are not my ways.”
This is the Lord’s declaration.
“For as heaven is higher than earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
What makes God's thoughts and ways so much greater? It's because, as Geoffrey Grogan writes, they are "in fact governed by righteousness—his righteousness—so his effective word accomplishes a moral purpose: the reclamation of the sinner from the error and wickedness of his ways."[1]
While we are tempted to see the world through the lens of who is for and against us, God sees it through the lens of who is for and against him. And it's because of his perfect perspective that he is able to extend his perfect love. As Gary Smith says,
The gracious and compassionate ways of a God who is perfectly sinless yet willing to love, choose, help, uphold, and forgive very rebellious people is beyond anything any human being could ever imagine. [2]
Perspective Shift
Seeing life from God's perspective isn't easy. But this is why our personal worship times with him (some call this their "daily devotions") are so important.
Trust me, as a dad of four kids, I know it's tempting to take my personal time with God for granted and to blend every part of my day together. To settle for the belief that "God knows my heart" and that talking to him throughout the day is a workable substitute for those quiet moments seeking his face.
Don't get me wrong. These times are great, but I've also realized that to cut through the grind of life, I need those airplane moments with God where I sit with him, listen for his voice, and actively seek to have his perspective. To take a step back and say, "OK God, this is how I see my life. But how do you see it?"
If this is a struggle for you, like it is for me, I challenge you to pause and bring your complexities to God—that client who keeps doubling down with demands, that real worry you have that you might not be able to make ends meet, and the fears you have for your future—and set them before God.
If you don't know where to start, begin with this prayer from Philip Doddridge that I read in Piercing Heaven when flying above Colorado on Wednesday.
Help me to know my God-given place, and to keep at the work you have given me. But deliver me from the burdensome cares of this world, which would so absorb my time and thoughts that “the one thing needful” would be forgotten. Moderate my desires for worldly possessions by reminding me how uncertain and unsatisfying they are. So while others are laying up treasures on earth, may I be rich toward God (Luke 12:21). May I never be too busy for those great things which lie between you and my soul. May I never be so engrossed with the concerns of time to neglect the interests of eternity! May I pass through earth with my heart and hopes set upon heaven, and feel the attraction stronger and stronger as I approach nearer and nearer to that center we seek—until the happy moment comes when every earthly object disappears from view, and the shining glories of the heavenly world fill my improved and strengthened sight. Then I will be cheered by that which would now overwhelm me. Amen. [3]
Seek God's eternal perspective, especially in those times you're prone to lose it.
[1]Geoffrey W. Grogan, “Isaiah,” in Proverbs-Isaiah, vol. 6 of The Expositor’s Bible Commentary Revised Edition. eds. Tremper Longman III and David E. Garland; Accordance electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008), 813.
[2] Gary V. Smith, Isaiah 40–66, eds. E. Ray Clendenen and Kenneth A. Mathews, vol. 15B of The New American Commentary. Accordance electronic ed. (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2009), 509.
[3] Robert Elmer, Piercing Heaven: Prayers of the Puritans (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2019), 75–76.
