Are You Flying Upside Down? | Faith Based Mentoring Ministries

Does this pilot know he/she is upside down?
Did you know that especially in the dark with out a visible horizon,
you can be flying upside down and not realize it?

Above are the basic instruments that a pilot must rely on
to stay on course and to avoid being in a position he/she
doesn’t realize which could be very dangerous – even fatal.

This could be the result of someone flying how they feel vs.
using their instruments to show exactly what their position
is to keep from harm. When you crash, you not only affect
your life but other lives also.

Much training and work is required to go against your
instincts to learn how to trust the instruments. The hood
above is used to train pilots to focus on the instruments
vs. how they feel.

Introduction

Recently a pilot was practicing high-speed maneuvers in a jet fighter. She turned the controls for what she thought was a steep ascent—and flew straight into the ground. She was unaware that she had been flying upside down.

There is a parable of human existence in our time—not exactly that everyone is crashing, thought there is enough of that—but most of us as individuals, and world society as a whole, live at a high speed, and often with no clue to whether we are flying upside down or right side up. Indeed, we are haunted by a strong suspicion that there may be no difference—or at least it is unknown or irrelevant. from “The Divine Conspiracy,” Dallas Willard

“Flying upside down? Can’t happen to me! I am smart. My sense of what’s going on is very good. May happen to someone else but not to me. Don’t try and tell me something contrary to what I KNOW. I am in control!”

Headline: “JFK Jr. Feared Dead in Plane Crash”, By Michael Grunwald, Washington Post Staff Writer, Sunday, July 18, 1999

The following is an excerpt from an internet article by Eric Nolte at www.airlinesafety.com/editorials/JFKJrCrash.htm

The kind of bafflement and panic that killed Kennedy arises in a mind as it struggles with the contradictory signals of its inner ear and its rational faculty. Reason and emotion are at war. The inner ear evolved over millennia to measure one’s movement in relation to the fixed sensation of gravity. Gravity always acts as a vector pointing straight down to the center of the earth. The inner ear is equipped with tubes of liquid that shift in response to any movement while the mind compares these signals against this fixed sensation of gravity. This balancing apparatus signals the pilot’s mind and says, “You are strapped into a seat that is now as level as if you were sitting squarely at your kitchen table.”

By contrast, at the same moment he was feeling perfectly right-side-up, the aircraft instruments, when correctly interpreted, conveyed the message, “Your wings are tilted steeply to the right of level, the nose of this airplane is pointing way down, and your airspeed is already howling past the red line.”

The airplane’s flight path creates forces that befuddle one’s awareness of earth’s gravity. To judge by the sensations in the seat of your pants, you literally can’t tell up from down, left from right. You are as helpless to move out of the airplane’s acceleration field as you would be if you were pinned to the side of a spinning circus centrifuge when the floor drops away.

And here is the crux of the matter: the pilot’s emotions drowned out the flight instruments’ story about banking and diving at high speed, and screamed out, “No way! It can’t be! I’m actually flying straight and level! I know it! I feel it’s true!”

Are you/we flying upside down? Let’s check our instruments against our senses/feelings…

How does flying upside relate to life? What reference do we use to make decisions in our life?

What do we use to answer the following questions?

Why am I here?
What is important in my life? What should I focus on?
Who is God and what is He like?
What role should God play in my life and why?
Can I trust my gut? My feelings? My instincts?
Where should I go for guidance?
How should I live on earth?
What will be important when I die?
Many, many more questions….

Are you/we flying upside down?

How many grew up in a house with a married mother and father? Where have you gotten your guide for life? What do you use to make decisions?

My story – dad was a preacher and parents were getting a divorce when I was in first grade. I went to 10 different schools all during my 1st year of school. My dad was always so busy working and surviving, he never spent a lot of time with me. He never taught me how to live (by example, he taught me a lot about how not to live). I was not well prepared for life.

What do you use as a guide when you make decisions – quick ones and longer ones? What is your standard? How do you know you are not “flying upside down?”

What do most of us use as our guide or our standard? Feelings? Emotions?

I love the Bible. It has provided a guide and standard for me to live. It has given me a light to follow that I didn’t get from my parents or from anyone else. It is the true “instrument panel” we can rely to check how we are doing.

What does the Bible say about us and it’s guidance?

Isaiah 29:16 (NIV) 16 You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, “He did not make me”? Can the pot say of the potter, “He knows nothing”?

Jeremiah 17:9 (NIV) 9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

Do I want to trust me to fly this plane through life?

Psalm 1:1-6 (NIV) 1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. 4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. 6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

Proverbs 8:1-14 (NIV) 1 Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice? 2 On the heights along the way, where the paths meet, she takes her stand; 3 beside the gates leading into the city, at the entrances, she cries aloud: 4 “To you, O men, I call out; I raise my voice to all mankind. 5 You who are simple, gain prudence; you who are foolish, gain understanding. 6 Listen, for I have worthy things to say; I open my lips to speak what is right. 7 My mouth speaks what is true, for my lips detest wickedness. 8 All the words of my mouth are just; none of them is crooked or perverse. 9 To the discerning all of them are right; they are faultless to those who have knowledge. 10 Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold, 11 for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her. 12 “I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence; I possess knowledge and discretion. 13 To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech. 14 Counsel and sound judgment are mine; I have understanding and power.

Proverbs 3:5-7 (NIV) 5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. 7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil.

Let’s look at some specific examples that I happen to have studied recently that are “upside down” or 180 degrees different than our natural reactions but are a much better path to take:

Proverbs 13:3 (NIV) 3 He who guards his lips guards his life, but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin.

What can we learn from this? How is this different than I am or react?

Proverbs 13:10 (NIV) 10 Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in those who take advice.

What can we learn from this? How is this different than I am or react?

Proverbs 13:11 (NIV) 11 Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow.

What can we learn from this? How is this different than I am or react?

Proverbs 13:13 (NIV) 13 He who scorns instruction will pay for it, but he who respects a command is rewarded.

What can we learn from this? How is this different than I am or react?

Proverbs 13:18 (NIV) 18 He who ignores discipline comes to poverty and shame, but whoever heeds correction is honored.

What can we learn from this? How is this different than I am or react?

Proverbs 13:21 (NIV) 21 Misfortune pursues the sinner, but prosperity is the reward of the righteous.

What can we learn from this? How is this different than I am or react?

Philippians 4:4 (NIV) 4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!