A WING AND A PRAYER, A WIZARD AND A SHIP

“You may be the only person left who believes in you, but it’s enough. It takes just one star to pierce a universe of darkness. Never give up.”

Richelle E. Goodrich

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

A Wing and A Prayer, a Wizard and a Ship

I am in the throes (use the Webster’s definition of “anguish”) of spring cleaning. I do hate it so, and it wears me out--to the point that after yesterday’s labors, I decided to goof off some today. (Read that as I am old and ain’t what I used to be as a cleaning tornado.) Since I am a movie buff I decided to watch one I had never cared for, to give it one more chance. And to my astonishment I came to the conclusion at the time of this viewing that it is a worthwhile flick after all. I chose to watch Jimmy Stewart and a pretty good cast in THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX. To quickly describe it I went to AI and here’s the skinny: “After an oil company plane crashes in the Sahara, the survivors' hopes are buoyed by one of the passengers, an airplane designer who comes up with a plan to build a flyable plane from the wreckage.”

Now my mind was all over the place while I watched, so stay with me. (Spoiler Alert:) If you have not seen this film and want to watch it, read my blog entry after so as not to ruin the ending.)

First, I got irritated with the guys in the cast who were the survivors of the crash. There was one of the group (a wizard if you will) who maintained he could take the wreckage, and with their help build a small plane. They could use it to escape the desert (by strapping themselves to the wings of the plane, no less.) They carped and griped, but finally gave into the man who maintained he had a plan—he did and set tasks for everyone. Inevitably as people tire out they get cranky and lose interest, often lose faith. Then it is revealed that he only built MODEL PLANES! Imagine the angst, the downright fits when his builders discovered this little fact! But that’s when I got mad at them. Had they not heard from someone, somewhere the wise words of the Scarecrow in THE WIZARD OF OZ?!!--“If I only had a brain?” If they had thought it through, why not take a chance on the guy. The Sahara is a pretty big place to just prance out of if you only have limited water, and marauding tribes of the desert (who, by the way murdered 2 of their crew.) What else did they have to do? I mean I’d rather die and just fall over right there before I gave up without a shot at building an escape plane. I would opt for using our brains and brawn.

All this made me think of the TITANIC—this will connect. Here, I must state that the sinking of the Titanic was a horrific event in history. It is heartrending to think of this tragedy and I do not take it at all lightly as I recall those who perished. I do have a thought on how I might have reacted in this event. I would have been petrified, a coward to begin with, I confess it freely. But I have a fairly quick mind and while the sinking was occurring I would have sought something to grab—there might have been time for this, as the band had time to decide to stay with the ship and play Nearer My God to Thee. That was touching and I would have joined them, and said a prayer as I sang—but I would still be working on my plan* of finding something to float away on as quickly as I could, getting as far away as I could.

* (My friends always mock me for “having a plan” in the event of the unknown happening--that is such a negative thing to do they say, to plan on disaster. Maybe so, but I might be the one you want to stick with as I just might be able to save myself and some others too. I think our family motto is “never give up trying and praying.”)

Most importantly I would do what I know I would think of all through any crisis. As a Christian I would render “unto God the things that are God's.” You see, even using all my faculties and strength I know I have the faith to make that my last act. Whether I am in a plane, on a ship or in a hospital bed when my crisis, my end here, comes—I will be praying and trusting my Creator. That’s the best plan ever.