Simple Thoughts Simple Prayers
Thoughts, Reflections, Inspirations, and Prayers
Simple Thoughts Simple Prayers
Lessons from Lindbergh: The Power of Hope and Determination
Journey with us as we soar through the riveting tale of Charles A. Lindbergh's audacious solo transatlantic flight. His relentless determination echoes in our spiritual ventures and life ambitions.
Drawing inspiration from the teachings in Hebrews 12, we discuss how God can help us shed the weight of our fears and burdens, allowing us to 'fly on'. This episode is an invitation for reflection on where we are headed, the joy of overcoming obstacles, and the life-altering power of hope. Come, let's embark on this enlightening journey together.
This is a simple thought, simple prayers. Here's a simple thought. There's a reason why people don't live in tents the thin walls scarcely hold back a limited amount of water and even less noise. They're fine for a night or two in the woods, but if the winds of a storm kick up, one had best head to the safety of the indoors. Unless one can't, unless one is suspended and said 10,000s of feet in the air over a menacing body of water for a reason.
Speaker 1:While it seems that perhaps I spend a night in the tent that has left me sleep deprived and nonsensical, let me reassure you that I am perfectly lucid when describing the setting of Charles A Lindbergh's solo transatlantic flight from New York to Paris or close to Paris. When we think of such a flight, we do so with modern sensibilities. So I picture a plane that feels more like a room in a house Instruments galore, dingin' and vibrating, and making helpful suggestions to pilots and notice, I say pilots, not pilots, because I think of them in tandem Maybe trading off who gets to take a nap, sipping coffee, having conversations, maybe thumbing through a magazine. This was not Lindbergh's experience Under finance. This gangly young man set out to do what no one had done alone before. The few competitors brave enough to challenge him in this goal had not fared well, and the field was thinning out due to tragedy and fear. There was a story about some pilots being lost to the ocean, another about a plane exploding on the runway.
Speaker 1:Lindbergh was undaunted. More so, he was possessed. He continued to dismantle even more of his plane, wanting something even lighter. He traded out heat for a scarf. He traded out ample food for a pocket full of crackers. He even got rid of radio navigation for its heft, instead relying on what is called dead reckoning. And I think an emphasis should be placed on the word dead here. This is how possessed he was, how obsessive he was that he took the maps that he'd be navigating by and he cut all the margins out, the tops and the bottoms, to make them smaller. Oh, and I should mention he opted for just one engine instead of two. Of course he did, and for nearly 34 hours he sat hunched. He built a cockpit so that his long legs he actually couldn't stretch them out he was just stuck in one fixed position. He had a flashlight clenched by his teeth, gyrating controls being held in one hand while the other hand did complex navigational math in his bouncing lap.
Speaker 1:He landed north of Paris. You can still visit his plane the spirit of St Louis and the Smithsonian but it isn't the real thing. For the real thing was ripped apart by fans upon his arrival in France. They had been waiting for him. In fact that's one way. He spotted the runway because he saw a massive line of cars and he thought it was a traffic jam in Paris. It turns out it was a runway and they were waiting for him avid. And they pulled him from the plane and hoisted him like a victor and carried him off the runway. But some stuck around and just ripped pieces off the plane because they were easy to come by. Because, remember, this was no plane, this was a tent strapped to an engine A man accomplished his goal, one no one had ever accomplished and that would change aviation forever.
Speaker 1:In a tent strapped to an engine Think of the swirling, deadly Atlantic below and just waiting to swallow him up. Think of the chill in the air, the cramped cockpit rattling and buzzing and threatening at every moment to come apart. Yet, I repeat, a man accomplished his goal. What are your goals For Limburg? It was weight, every ounce an offense. He recognized this and mortified each affronting iota of encumbrance.
Speaker 1:Hebrews 12 makes a similar challenge for those whose goal is not some airfield near Paris, but godliness, for those who seek to land in realms of daily joy and kindness and love and the sacrifice associated with love. For those people the author of Hebrews gives these words let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. In other words, cut out the weight, Car the burdens, diminish the drag, the things that do not help us endress. The writer goes on to show the Limburgian result of such efforts. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. We have to know where we are running and focus on that. But our hope of mama by moment victory relies too on a precious seriousness about recognizing and throwing off everything that stands in our way Hunched, strained, suffering. That was Limburg, lifted up, effervescent, victorious. So was that. One picture was momentary, but it led to the other picture, which became eternal.
Speaker 1:There is a reason why people don't live in tents the thin walls scarcely hold back a limited amount of water and even less noise. They are fine for a night or two in the woods, but if the winds of a storm kick up one best head to the safety of the indoors. Unless one can, unless one is suspended and said 10,000 to feed in the air over a menacing body of water for a reason, unless there is a reason, let me pray, god. Let us see the reason. Show us the reason today and in seeing the reason clearly and seeing the hope clearly, let us run, but not in a way that is burdened, not in a way that is entangled and cumbers. Let us throw those things that hinder away. Let us assess our life. Let us assess our day. Let us assess our behaviors. Let us assess our habits. Let us assess our relationships. Let us assess all of these things in the hope of landing in the field that we were called the land, of accomplishing the goal, of completing the mission, of finishing the race.
Speaker 1:Whatever metaphor, analogy we're gonna throw at it, god, let us see the weight for what it is. It is a thing that wants to plunge us into the depths of the sea. So let us take it like you, take our sin and throw it into the sea to remember it no more, for it will not stop us, it will not conquer us, it will not deter us. God, let us fly on today, whatever that looks like. Yes, it will be uncomfortable. Yes, we might be hunched. Yes, it will take sacrifice, but all good things do. Let us fly on with the hope focused on the author and perfecter Amen.