High Flight

This poem has been the most read piece that I have posted. High Flight used to be run when the major networks ended their television programming.

Oh I have slipped the surly bonds of earth and danced the skies on laughter silvered wings.
Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun split clouds and done a hundred things you have not dreamed of.

Wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence. Hovering there, I've chased the shouting wind along and flung my eager craft thru footless halls of air.

Up, Up the long delirious burning blue I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace where never Lark or even Eagle flew.

And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod the high untrespassed sanctity of space. Put out my hand and touched the Face of God.

Pilot MaGee composed the poem beginning at thirty thousand feet and had it complete before he touched down. It was written on an envelope. He died later in a training accident.

A New Year

Our Christian life is not supposed to be perfectly planned out. Abraham was called by God to travel to a land he had never seen. That was certainly not planned out by Abraham. Moses was called to lead a couple of million Jews from Egypt and walk through the Red Sea. Again, an event not planned out. 

In the New Testament we find three astronomers who decide to start following a bright group of lights in the night sky. They had no idea how long it would take to achieve their goal. So, they set out believing they were going to find the King of the Jews. Did they know how long they would travel? Yes they did, and no they didn't. They knew they would travel as long as it took to get to their destination. No, they really didn't know exactly how long that would be. They were patient and determined.

These events may not have been planned out by the participants, but they were by God. If you insist that each and every day follow a perfect plan or script how can God surprise you or use you? We live in an instant world. Our news comes instantly. I check the weather on my phone and in seconds I know the temperature thousands of miles away. 

Be open to the unexpected. God might show up in the grocery store when an elderly person needs help. Or an exasperated mother, who is struggling with her little children, needs an extra arm or shoulder. I love the commercial that depicts an elderly lady shuffling across the intersection. A very annoyed and impatient driver is inching closer and being a jerk. She looks at him, and in a flash, she hits the front bumper of his car and the air bag goes off. She must of had a heavy purse and strong arm.

We have no idea what is in store for us this coming year. And, I for one am glad. I do not want to know if tragedy is awaiting. If it comes I know that God will give me the grace and strength to handle it. I do not want to know if some great prosperous event is going to land on me. My anxiety of waiting for such an event would make me useless. 

The words of Jesus can slap me in the face. Remember, "Not even a sparrow falls from the sky that your Heavenly Father does not see." God knows, we do not. Are you in the spiritual mindset that would allow God to interfere with your calendar, cell phone, television programs, or ??????

T. A. Galloway is the author of Amazon's #2 Family and Inspiration book, A Mother's Heart Moved the Hand of God.