Getting What You Asked For

So what is it like when you get what you ask for? That's always a dangerous thing. For 18 years I've been living within shouting distance of Ellington Field. I have watched the F-4s, F-16s, and T-38s fly over regularly, interrupting conversations with their roar. I have seen parts of 18 Wings Over Houston Airshows -- Blue Angels, Thunderbirds, and others. And I have wanted once, just once, to be in the backseat of one of those jets. I'm pretty certain I'd throw up everything inside, but I have really wanted to do it just once.

I mentioned that one morning in a Men's Fraternity presentation this spring and someone heard me. He told me he had a friend with a refurbished MiG, an L-39 that he keeps at Ellington Field, and that he could arrange for a flight. Click here for more info. I couldn't believe it was really going to happen. It wasn't a sporty T-38, but it was a for real jet and I would get to leave earth in it, and that would be more than enough for me.

The flight is scheduled for today. About three hours from now. My stomach is knotting up a little bit. I'm kind of nervous. My wife is telling me that under no circumstances am I to attempt to actually fly the plane.

It's one of those situations, though. What happens when you really get what you ask for? Are you ready? I ask things of God regularly. I ask for what sound like noble things. I ask for God's hand to be on our church. I ask for him to make himself known to us in worship. I ask for him to lead us, for his will to be done. I ask for him to change my life, to develop my character. I think my stomach should be knotting up and I should be breaking out in a cold sweat. What if he hears? What if he does? What if he grants what I ask?

I'm fairly well persuaded that we are free to ask of God what we will, but that we are not free to instruct him as to the means that he must use to grant our desires. He remains sovereign. My experience has been that he feels quite free to do as he pleases without consulting me on the means by which he accomplishes his will and purposes around me. So I suppose I should be careful about what I ask.

So, whether I'm ready or not, in a couple of hours I will don a flight suit and a helmet and climb into the backseat of a machine capable of flying just under 500 mph with only two passengers. I think I want to do this. I asked for it.

I hope to report in later.

rrc