Headwinds

Last week I made a quick trip to Ft. Worth, Texas, for a wedding. Chelsea’s cousin was getting married and Chelsea had already been out there for a couple of days. Unfortunately, due to camp pitch and camp meeting, I could only break away for about 36 hours. I took off in our little Piper Cherokee 180, affectionately known as Miss Peggy, first thing on Sunday morning. Because of the headwinds, it took just over six hours of flying and one fuel stop to make it to Texas. I took a quick shower, changed clothes, and attended the wedding that evening. The next morning, Chelsea and I took off and enjoyed a tailwind all the way home, making the trip in a little over five hours and one fuel stop, making it home just in time for the evening session at camp meeting. Both flights were relatively uncomplicated and smooth. The winds in Texas, however, were rather strong and gusty. In fact, as we were loading the airplane at the airport in Ft. Worth, we watched another aircraft taking off. Because of the strong winds, it looked like it was barely moving. Obviously, the airplane’s airspeed was probably at least 80 or 90 miles per hour, but its ground speed was much, much less.

As I watched that airplane climb, appearing to nearly hover as it crept forward, I thought about people who we think aren’t making much progress in life. We may assume that they’re lazy or incompetent, but we may not be aware of the headwinds that they are facing. The apostle Peter gives us some good advice: “Finally, all of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters. Be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude” (1 Peter 3:8). We may only see a person’s groundspeed, their apparent success at moving forward. But in order to truly follow Peter’s directions, we must also think about the difficulties that people are facing which may be invisible to us. Why don’t you practice sympathizing with and being tenderhearted towards people today?