You know what I’m talking about.  Not pelting rain or driving wind, but instead, real life storms like broken relationships, sickness, financial hardship or unforgiveness.  Today let’s ask one powerful question, “How can I be ready for life’s storms, no matter what comes my way?”

To help answer, I want to take you for just a moment, to sit in the pilot’s seat of a small single engine airplane, deep in the middle of a raging blizzard, where the night sky’s only color is a blinding white, and the snow is flying so thick, it feels like you are inside a bag of powdered sugar.  

When you fly an airplane in such conditions, you can see nothing outside the cockpit.  Absolutely nothing. Worse than that, it’s quite possible your body, your equilibrium, or your sense of direction will tell you to turn.  It might tell you to go up, down, left or right and no one knows why.  Who knows, the impulse to turn, turn, turn now may entirely depend on which way the wind is blowing, what you ate for breakfast, or just an incredibly strong gut feeling.  So guess what we pilots – you and I – are trained to do?  Ignore your gut.  Ignore it.  Say NO to the call to turn, no matter how much it urges you.  

Instead, we pilots are trained through hours and hours of practice, to follow the instruments.  To be smart enough to ignore our hearts and to use our heads.  We follow the instruments and when we do – our plane will eventually descend through that blizzard and the runway will be directly ahead of us, exactly where it is supposed to be!  

Now without minimizing your troubles, and without knowing what terrible blizzards or storms are in your life, we too can have the ability, with proper training, to fly through life’s storms and land safely on the runway.  There are several key elements to not just surviving, but even thriving through life’s storms that are inside this flying story.  

First, we all need proper training.  Real airplane pilots train for storms on sunny days. They wear a hood to obscure their view so they can only see the instruments inside the plane.  And then they practice.  And practice and practice even more.  In fact, real pilots never stop practicing, as they pretend to fly through storms, instrument failures, mechanical troubles and more.      

In the same way, we have the ability to practice, so we are prepared for life’s inevitable storms.  Jesus even said, “In this world, you will have trouble.”  You will have storms and problems.  But I can only imagine how Jesus probably paused for effect, then smiled and raised his arms as he finished his sentence, “But take heart, for I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

See what Jesus is really saying to you and me?  He’s saying I’m bigger than your troubles.  No matter what the world throws at you, I have calmed the storm.  I have already won the battles and the war.  All you need to do is put your hope and trust in me.  

Yes, we too can practice.  Practice being with Jesus. Practice reading his book.  Practice getting to know God.  Practice obeying his voice. Hang out with him.  Sing his songs.  Talk to him, wrestle with God, and think with him.  Believe it or not, 3000 years before anyone ever thought about writing a flight training manual, God even said, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” Proverbs 3:5  In our modern world we could translate this to say, “Put all your trust in Jesus instead of following your gut.”

And as we practice, our foundation in Jesus and our love for God will become so strong that absolutely no storm in this life will be able to shake us.  No bad news; No offense or hardship or pressure will ever cause us to turn off course as we follow his way. Because we put our trust in Jesus, we too will land our plane, our very lives, right in his lap!  I can’t imagine a better and safer place to land!