Control Surfaces

Good Monday morning! The beginning of the cool down to normal temps is supposed to arrive today. We'll see about that, in the meantime, let's talk control. Watching a certain gang of mostly-literate hooligans, I have noticed they like to exercise control of little flying things from a distance. Some of these things may stretch the definition of little, but all are controlled through a set of control surfaces. The 'pilot', to really stretch a definition, uses a radio control set on the ground and sends control signals to a receiver on the little plane. Each plane has small models of an airplane control surfaces. Ailerons, flaps, rudders, and a throttle are all manipulated from the relative safety of the ground. One advantage to this is that the model planes can perform maneuvers that would cause a human pilot to lose consciousness.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this sport is not in the actual performance, but in the way we think about salvation. How often have you or someone you know wanted Jesus to fly him or her like a little plane? It doesn't work that way, but we say something like, "I belong to you now Lord, I expect you to control me so that I never sin again." Then, we fall, stumble, or run right into sin once more and we blame Jesus. After all, we try to reason, He holds our remote control. If God wanted little remote-controlled servants, He could have created them long ago and avoided all the heartache we tend to cause Him. If salvation made us little Bible-verse spouting robots controlled from Heaven's control room, God would have a different plan than He has right now.

At the moment, God has ambassadors in a foreign land. You and me are controlled from Heaven in that we take our orders from there and carry them out as best we can in the strength of Christ. Like a national ambassador, we have different skills from each other. Some of us are skilled in singing or preaching; others can write or speak well. Some contact many of the earthly natives, others only see or listen to a few in this life. God may push on a control surface here or there in our journey, but His touch is so gentle that we may not realize it until long after the fact. We are guided in our decisions through God's Holy Spirit, but we still make the decisions. Alas, that means the blame for sin still rests on me. Time for some prayer and supplication with thanksgiving!

Bucky