Monday, April 21, 2014

The Failing Heart of a Missing Flight/The Strengthened Heart of a Saving Faith

Picture of airplane 9M-MRO taken by a plane enthusiast
So whatever happened to Flight 370, no one knows.

And if you're looking for answers, none of the steps that have been taken to find the plane have led to any answers.

Every path has just left us chasing after.

Was it a freak accident? Was it a terrorist attack? Is it a conspiracy?

Somehow we just have to know. I mean we're willing to spend a quarter billion dollars just to find some sort of clue. Anything would be nice.

It's that feeling of losing 239 people who for many are friends and family members and not knowing how to move on. Of being frozen in time, and not knowing how to grieve because there's nothing on which to place the grief... On an accident which would result in sorrow? on a terrorist attack which would result in anger? or on a failure to follow correct safety procedures by mechanics, pilots, and/or air controllers which would result in a demand for compensation?

Either way, I would imagine that the pain of uncertainty is unbearable for those who are close to the friends or family members of those who were on the plane.

And then what happens if say a year or two goes by and then something turns up? What then? Something that you finally learn to leave unknown you all of a sudden have the chance of figuring out but maybe then you'd rather not. You'd rather not because what do you do with the answer? You just open up that wound again and the 3 questions you had to begin with now all of a sudden turn into 10?

I'm not saying that that's the right attitude, but I guess that even for me there's a couple things I've decided that I'd rather not figure out; and I think that the primary reason for that is because if I did - either way I can't do anything about the answer.

And I suspect that many of the disciples, especially Thomas, had some of the same issues going through their minds after Jesus died... And then when Thomas heard that he had risen - well what then? He was just supposed to take someone else's word for that and go on with his life without hearing from Jesus personally?

I think that Thomas needed to know for sure because perhaps he understood some of the implications involved in how he would have to live the rest of his life, if in fact Jesus was alive.

Remember that he was the one who said, ¨Let us also go that we may die with him¨ (John 11:16), when referring to the idea of going back to Judea with Jesus after Lazarus died.

Here we see a man that was ready to give everything to follow Jesus, and I suppose that Thomas knew it was possible for Jesus to rise again (because he saw Jesus raise Lazarus), but he needed that certainty to let him know that he had, just to know what to do next and to have the inspiration to do it.

Well, that command of what to do next was ultimately to go and preach throughout the whole world the things that Jesus had taught the disciples, and to baptize those who would came to faith in him in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19-20).

What we know of Thomas is that he actually did follow through with that. He went all the way to India in his obedience to fulfill the Great Commission, and I think that the diligence he had in doing so stemmed from the certainty he had of seeing Jesus and touching him in his side.

For me personally, I know that I´ve never seen Jesus face to face, but I still believe that he has risen from the dead and so that belief pushes me forward in my drive to make Him known.

I´m not like those who are left in oblivion without knowing the truth of what happened to their loved ones on flight 370. I´m like one of those who Jesus said was blessed because I have believed without having seen (John 20:29)... I´m not like one of those that shrinks back only to be destroyed, but rather I´m like one of those with the kind of confidence that will be richly rewarded. A confidence stemming from faith in the resurrected Jesus Christ, the Living Son of God (Hebrews 10:35-39).