Worth a Thousand Words...

Sometimes a picture really says more than we could ever write about it...and that is true of this one. But I'll write about it anyway.

When I first saw this picture I thought someone had "photoshopped" it just to get a laugh. Turns out that the picture is valid. (Read the real story here) No digital tricks, just really bad PR for "American Aviation". After I read the details I clicked on to something else, but I couldn't get the picture out of my mind. It seemed a bit weird actually, as if there was something else there that I had missed. So I took a little time to look at it and see if maybe God had something that He wanted me to see.

I gained some insight later as I was reading a passage from II Cor. 4...

"...But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body." (v.7-11)

What would definitely be bad "press and public relations" for American Aviation is a reality that we deal with in the church. We have no superstars. We are what we are; a group of broken and sinful people, thankful for the cross, seeking Jesus, and trying to point others to Him. What we tend to do in the church is to try to hide the reality of who we are and the struggles that we have. Jesus has forgiven us and begun the transformation process by His Spirit, but we often look more like a plane wreck in a tree than a shining new 747 prepared for takeoff. The good news is that's okay. While we don't love our weaknesses or seek to perpetuate them, we don't have to hide them either. In fact, they are a proclamation to the world that we are all learning to follow Jesus, and you're never too far gone to begin to learn. Our "crashes" act as a glaring notification that we all have some learning to do.

So is a plane crash good marketing for a flight school? Probably not - but in the Kingdom of God everything functions a bit differently than in the world around us. That's why even our weaknesses and failings can be used to point people to Jesus. Don't know about you, but that's pretty encouraging to me.