Flying Blind

"With a mastery of the skies that is almost unparalleled among birds, swifts spend virtually all their waking hours on the wing. Some are even thought to sleep while in flight." (National Geographic Complete Birds of the World, Tim Harris, Editor.)

This sentence arrested my attention this morning. Some are even thought to sleep while in flight. Suddenly an image of myself, worrying and racing into the future, even in my dreams, rose up before me. I never rest. I am always flying onward in my mind and heart into the unknown, arranging things in my favor, blocking horrific events, crafting ways to dodge bullets and ferret out landmines. I am always attempting control over my life and the lives of people I love and ever falling flat because I am, after all, not God.

As I looked at this amazing book of birds, greedily grabbed from the shelf at my local library in my best attempt to recreate a magical part of my childhood (actually picking out books by browsing the stacks, then going home and holding them in my hands as I read and turn actual paper pages), I found myself skimming from the back to the front, because I am left-handed. I have to stop myself at times, when the subject matter would be garbled, and force myself to scan a book from front to back like a normal person would. This bird book was full of glorious photos, so the order didn't really matter, but I stopped myself anyway (in case one of the neighbors was watching me over the fence). What happens when we skim life from the back to the front, imagining and preparing ourselves for future scenarios? Life becomes garbled.

God never meant for us to live that way. He said today has enough trouble of its own. Might be a good idea to break off a piece of the behemoth that is life one day at a time. Might even find yourself enjoying some of those chunks. Celebrating them. Maximizing them. You'll have more energy because you will have one "to-do" list for that day to mind, one set of 24 hours to prayerfully navigate and trust God in. It'll be enough. Trust me.