Taking my eyes off myself

This morning I was reading Oswald Chambers installment for October 21st which focused on sanctification: What is it and how does it apply to my life today.

First it isn’t something that I ask God for. He gave it when I came to Christ. Christ did everything already. As Tony Evens said during one of our Chapels when I was at Moody, “You don’t need to do anything because it’s already been did”.

Sanctification is giving my life over to Jesus and allowing the holiness that is His (that is now mine as a believer) to pour out and through me.

My wife once read a book about the rooms in her life. The premise was that we all have rooms that we are more than willing to share with God; our works, our church attendance, our sacrificial giving of our selves to ministries within our church, so on and so forth…the pretty stuff. But there are always rooms we keep locked and say, “No Jesus, you don’t want to go in there. I haven’t made the beds and well, frankly (in a whispered tone we say)…it’s a mess.” What am I talking about? A short list might be; anger, jealousy, addictive behaviors, laziness, gluttony…you get the idea.

Jesus knows that already, before you told Him.

And that’s what sanctification is all about. You and I unlocking those doors [of our own free will] and saying, “It’s a mess, I want to clean it up…will you help?” [because we still believe it's us doing it].

When we get to that point, and come to Him, He will. But when we open that door we find the room in already in order. He was already there, working, we just had to acknowledge His sovereignty in our life completely and not just in the chosen, best-of-show areas.

When I left Ecuador I had flown nearly 3,000 hours without one accident or even and incident. Not a scratch on any plane I flew.

And it wasn’t because I only flew on pretty days. In fact, the last two and a half years there I flew 20% more than any of the other pilots. I took extra flights when the weather was crummy, or the legs were long over the Andes in IFR conditions, or just exhausting days on the weekends with 20 or so take-offs and landings.

How did I do it?

Of course God’s protection first and foremost. But one of the moving parts in God’s protection mechanism for me was in how He wired me. You see, my nature is always to say, “What if?” Some people say I’m a little paranoid when it comes to safety issues. That was a trait that was developed while a flight student at Moody Aviation [where it was inrgained in the training]. Then after joining MAF it was one of our mantras; “What if?”. It’s a key link in breaking the accident chain.

What if:

• A child is hiding in the grass by the strip”?
• What if their’s a mountain inside that cloud on that ridge?
• What if the wind direction changes on this one-way strip on final approach?
• What if the surface of that dirt strip has more water standing on that I can see?
• What if the turbo fails on take-off?

The answers to all of these had answers and I practiced thinking through my responses through out the day as I made decisions that ultimately affected the lives of hundreds of people I carried on-board my MAF aircraft the 7 years I flew in Ecuador.

But this natural safety device is a two edged sword I have found, something I have to turn off in my walk with God somedays. Sometimes, I have to admit, that I don’t have the answer to some of the what-ifs in life. I have to recognize that only He does and I have to trust Him. (Proverbs 3: 5,6)

Some days, many days actually, I am like Peter getting out of that boat and walking on top of the waves in that tumultuous Sea of Galilee. Once I take my eyes off Jesus, though, and realize I am in deep water, I begin to sink.

So what’s the point?

Sanctification then is taking my eyes off of myself and putting my gaze back on Him. I have to open that door to that messy room in my soul and let His holiness manifest itself.