| DON’T PANIC—DO SOMETHING By Erwin Bourne—August 26, 2002 Few days go by without our coming face to face with an uninvited, unanticipated, yet unavoidable decision. These decisions tumble upon us without warning—like a crashing avalanche. They disorientate and bewilder. Quick! No council, no study, no advice. Pow! All of a sudden you are hurled into the air of uncertainty. You’ve got to believe it! In the very middle of writing the foregoing paragraph, the avalanche struck. A native pastor knocked on the front door. He was taking a launch to San Antonio, Peru, in another hour. At the same time another national preacher was at the back door. It was catastrophic! A good example is that of the three Apostles. In the garden. Sound asleep. They are awakened by Jesus to clanging swords, bright torches, and loud voices. “There he is!” “Let’s get him!” A shout. A kiss. A quick skirmish. All of a sudden it is decision time. No time to pray. No time to consult friends. Decisions. Peter makes his. Out comes the sword. Off goes the ear. Jesus rebukes him. What next? Mark, who apparently was a young eyewitness, wrote these words, “Then everyone forsook him and fled.” All those words of loyalty and commitment were left behind in a cloud of dust. Now it doesn’t have to be like that. Jesus didn’t panic. One statement made by our Master offers two basic tools for keeping our cool in the heat of decision. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.” Don’t panic! Here’s a good example. I was a passenger in the back seat of a tri-pacer. Pete, the owner of the plane, was as yet quite inexperienced with flying Alaska’s skies. He was piloting while Joe sat at the dual controls. We were returning from Tetlin Village en route to Fairbanks, when we ran into some bad turbulence that we couldn’t circumvent. Rather than run into these ugly clouds, we decided to make a highway landing at Dot Lake. Pete made two trial passes over this stretch of highway before touching down. Side drafts were treacherous. We touched down on one wheel and bounced. On second bounce we veered sideways toward s stand of birch and cottonwoods. One more bounce would be the last one. Without a word being spoken, Pete threw both his hands into the air as a signal to Joe. Joe gave the engine full throttle, leveled out the flight, and within seconds we were above the grove of trees and circling away from the storm toward Tanacross where we had the advantage of a lengthy airstrip. Getting home to Fairbanks is a much longer story, but being safe on the ground was what mattered at the time. Quick decision-making comes as the result of trust and experience. Just when do we turn over the controls? By Erwin Bourne, <Outreach_amazon@yahoo.com> |