Trust Your Instruments

Any experienced traveler knows the feeling. You stare at the Departure board in the airport, dismayed as the dreaded word *Delayed *appears beside one flight after another. Soon a 20-minute weather delay turns into an hour, and you calculate how much time you need to catch your connecting flight in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Finally you board the aircraft along with your fellow travelers, only to wait longer as raindrops pelt the plane. The faces of the weary flight crew tell you it’s going to be a long night. The passengers release a collective groan when the pilot announces, “Ladies and gentlemen, to avoid storms we’re going to take a longer route, so we need to add some extra fuel before we take off.”

Eventually you arrive in Charlotte at midnight, two hours after your connecting flight departed. You catch a few hours of sleep at an overpriced hotel, then take the shuttle back to the airport early the next morning. Strangely, things feel better as the new day begins. The weather is clear now. The morning flight leaves on time. The previous night’s frustrations dissolve into order and calm. You close your eyes and doze.

You awake to hear the announcement, “Ladies and gentlemen, we have been cleared for landing.” Pulling your seat into its upright position, you look out the window and see nothing but a solid layer of clouds. The thought crosses your mind, *How can the pilot know we’re in the right place to land when he can’t see anything below? * You ponder the marvels of radar, global positioning systems, and computerized communication. When pilots cannot see the ground, they must trust their instruments. The dials and gauges in the cockpit show the way home, and the pilot can trust the voice of the air traffic controller. You land smoothly—right on schedule this time.

Buying Real Estate in a Condemned Land

Living by faith isn’t just a trite expression. It’s how life is meant to be lived. When I was young I needed faith to face the future. Whom would I marry? Where should I go to college? What job should I pursue?

Now with more years behind me than ahead, I find that faith is still required—maybe even more than before. How can I bear maximum fruit for God during this next season of my life? Will I stand the test and keep the faith as I move through whatever physical, financial, emotional, or spiritual challenges that lie ahead?

God told Jeremiah to buy a field and the prophet faithfully obeyed, dolling out 17 shekels of silver, signing and sealing the deed, and having the legal documents properly witnessed and sealed in a clay jar for safe-keeping (Jeremiah 32:6-14). It’s not unusual for someone to buy a piece of real estate, but in this case it was remarkable because God had told Jeremiah repeatedly that his home town was on the verge of destruction by the Babylonians.

Why purchase property in a condemned land? Why invest your resources in a place that’s destined for destruction? Buying the field was an act of faith. It expressed the prophet’s confidence in the Lord’s promise that someday, “Houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land” (v. 15). Jeremiah obeyed because he trusted the voice in the control tower. In spite of the pain his nation faced, there were better times ahead—and no amount of clouds could block the way home.

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