Thursday, March 30, 2006
It was early 1997, when Americans heard those unsettling words on the evening news, "airline pilots strike." Man, I hate words like that! The threat of American Airlines pilots going on strike threw everyone affected by it into a tailspin. Panicky travelers were scrambling to double book their reservations on another airline just in case, resort areas serviced by American Airlines began to add up the zillions this might cost them, the White House started adding up the devastating financial cost on the economy - so much that the President stepped in to at least delay the strike. Well, the simple fact is, planes are going nowhere without pilots. If they don't show up for their job, it gets real crazy real fast.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Pilot Strike Mess."
There actually has been a pilot's strike going on for a long time in many places. And there is a mess. The first pilot's strike took place in the first family when Adam was supposed to be piloting his family as God intended.
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Genesis 2:16-17, and it says, "And the Lord God commanded the man, 'You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.'" When God gave these orders, there wasn't even an Eve yet. It was clearly up to Adam to make sure God's plan was clear to his wife, and that their first family flew by God's flight plan.
Then in Genesis 3, verses 6 and following, it says, "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it." Now, excuse me. Is the pilot on strike here? It goes on to say, "Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord called to the man, 'Where are you?'" Adam and Eve end up totally out of the flight plan of God and ruined in the first spiritual crash in history, followed by millions of others over the years since. There is no doubt who God holds responsible for the spiritual condition of this family - and every family. He gives the man the flight plan. He comes looking for the man when there's a problem. In every life situation, when the pilot is not on the job, there is ultimately a spiritual crash.
It may be what's wrong where you live. Behind so many rebellious children, behind so many resentful or dominant or negative women is a man who is not being a man. Not some chest-beating tyrant, but a real man like Jesus: taking moral leadership, involving God in every aspect of the family's life, being tender when it's time to be tender and firm when it's time to be firm, showing love and compassion and mercy, leading his family to God - to His love and His answers.
If you're a husband or father, is that you in your family? It's supposed to be. In fact, you can expect God to come calling your name some day as He did Adam's that day in the garden. He'll ask you to give account for the kind of spiritual pilot you were for the people He entrusted to you. There's no passing the buck on this one, no delegating your God-given assignment, no excuses that you were too busy with less important things. The buck stops with the man for the spiritual and emotional health of his marriage and his family.
God knows your weaknesses, and He's anxious to empower you with His resources to be the man you need to be. But you have to surrender to Him so He can give you all you need. God has put you, as the man, in the pilot's seat of your family. If the pilot in on strike, the result's a mess - maybe even a crash. Be sure you have God's flight plan, that you show up for your job, and you experience the joy of taking your family where God wants them to go.