If you have ever experienced turbulence on an airplane you know how unsettling it can be.  Because you can’t see what’s causing the turbulence, it can be frightening.  Your tray table is shaking, your drink may spill, you don’t know when it may end. The shaking of the plane is unpredictable: it may be violent for a moment and then calmer.  Your stomach may lurch as you drop suddenly, and then get shaken every-which-a-way. Your mind can start to imagine the worst-case scenario of the plane going down in flames.

Recently my husband, Otis, and I went down a long back road. The GPS had taken us a new way.   As we sped down the country road filled with all manner of potholes and uneven ground, he commented that the way the road was jolting us in the car felt very similar to turbulence in an airplane. I had to think about it a minute and feel the effect of the car jolting me.  It was surprising, but I had to agree the bumpy road did have the same irregular jarring effect of up and down, front to back, side to side as an airplane turbulence! Yet the fact that we could see the road made it a completely different experience: the fear was not there because we could see that it was just a road and the turbulence was annoying but not dangerous.

The fact that I could see there was a road took away the unsettling fear that I might have felt on an airplane where I could not see or know what may happen next. I may not be able to see far ahead on the road, but I did know that I was on a road.

I reflected on how this picture illustrates in a way the unsettling times we are going through in our world today. Many people are being shaken to the core right now.  Our health, the economy, racial tensions, government decisions; all may be in flux and threaten us with fear.  People are asking, “Why is this all happening? Where is this coming from? What will happen next?” The turbulence may get better, it may get worse, it may change. 

I think that just as the turbulence can feel the same but carry different levels of fear in a car and a plane, people may have two different ways of thinking about the turbulence around us.  Our perspective affects our level of fear.  Those of us who know our Father God through our relationship with Jesus can have peace through the turbulent times.  According to his disciple, John, Jesus told his followers the night before his death:

“In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me.” (John 14:1)

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.  I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27)

Notice he says we will have trouble.  And also notice he says not to let our hearts be troubled. 

Let’s expect the turbulence.  Let’s trust in our God to be with us, in us, beside us.  Let’s spend time in his Word where we can be reminded, over and over again, that he has got this, though we can’t see the path ahead.

I don’t know what trouble you may be experiencing today. You may have a sense of loss, anger at injustice, frustration, fear of the unknown, or many other emotions. There is so much going on around us and in us coming from many different sources.

Let’s remind each other it is possible to be in the midst of trouble without our hearts being troubled.

Trusting in him,

Ellen