Nick Vujicic

As I have proudly mentioned before, my amazing husband is a pilot, a top notch pilot. All I have learned about the exciting world of aviation is largely due to being married to my Flyboy. No, for the record he is not nor was he ever in the air force. Irrelevant!

I recall being at the Dreher Park (Palm Beach) Zoo with our then preschool age son the morning following the shocking reports of John F. Kennedy, Jr.’s plane mysteriously disappearing during the prior evening. Amid all the speculations was the obvious concern that he, his wife and her sister had gone missing and were feared dead. Being married to a pilot, with a heavy heart I didn’t want to believe what my husband instinctively knew was the sad truth the rest of the world would soon learn; spatial disorientation was the cause of their deaths.

The more common term for spatial disorientation is vertigo or “Which way is up?“. Using my own definition, a variation of vertigo is when I get motion sickness and could care less which way is up, just please stop the motion! The concern though with a pilot at the controls is, they may very well not realize they are dealing with spatial disorientation due to losing their view of the horizon, thus their visual balance plays tricks with their minds. Fortunately I have never (hmm,…at least to my knowledge) been flying with my husband or any other pilots when spatial disorientation was even a remote concern. However, I have been a passenger in a plane while pilot friends practice flying “under the hood”.

There are two very important and basic terms in aviation which refer to the visual/weather conditions under which to safely fly; VFR and IFR. Not to bore my readers with information beyond my own personal expertise, but VFR stands for Visual Flight Rules and IFR stands for Instrument Flight Rules. Should the weather conditions be deemed unsafe (limited visibility) by the FAA, Federal Aviation Administration , hopefully the pilot is instrument rated because Instrument Flight Rules are enforced. To become instrument rated, pilots must practice flying while “under the hood” meaning their visibility is restricted, forcing them to rely on the instruments located on the instrument panel.

Just as pilots very quickly learn, they cannot go by what they see or feel, or will risk spatial disorientation, getting the leans, ultimately spinning the plane into the ground, but must rely on their instruments. So too for the Christian. Our faith in God is not based on what we think we see in the natural or how we think we feel emotionally, but by focusing on our instrument panel which is God’s Word. Especially when life seems too difficult to handle alone, trusting God’s IFR is the only way to keep flying high.

I like what Nick Vujicic says “attitude is altitude.

“…but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” Isaiah 40:31 (ESV).

I must also give inspirational credit for the development of this post to two ministers who just happen to be pilots: Kenneth Copeland and Jimmy Evans.

And just for the record; I am not a pilot, but have a great amount of respect for pilots, especially my Flyboy.

Happy Flying!

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INSPIRATIONAL

Be Inspired! Nick Vujicic & “The Butterfly Circus”

October 30, 2020December 27, 2020 taylorjamesalbert

I have never been crazy about circuses. Mainly because I felt the animals were not fairly treated, but the thought of a freak show just seemed so very wrong. No, I am not old enough to have experienced The Great Depression and attended a circus which included a demoralizing freak show. However, the very short film entitled “The Butterfly Circus” challenges each of us to rethink our value and become all God intended us to be.

Nick Vujicic was born limbless (tetra-amelia syndrome) and has learned to go beyond the stigma of the world viewing him as a freak show in and of himself. Nick Vujicic is a inspiration to us all because he has learned he is not a victim, but has a greater purpose uniquely his own. God blessed him to be born not as a deformity, but as a testament, a man who is not defined by his physical lackings, but by his joy knowing he is a first class son of our first class King.

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them” Psalm 139:13-16 (ESV).

“The greater the struggle, the more glorious the triumph” (Mr. Mendez, Butterfly Circus master).

“When you don’t get a miracle, be one!” Nick Vujicic.

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Life’s Problems: Bitter or Better

February 10, 2020December 18, 2020 taylorjamesalbert

Each of us has problems to deal with. This is life. The real question is how do we deal with these problems? How we deal with them determines the quality of our life.

Though I can’t say I recall ever hearing my deceased mother-in-law having said this, but my husband has said she had said “life is just a series of problems to be solved.” This statement does sound like her.

The phrase “bitter or better” is such an accurate description of how effectively we use our problems in life. We can choose to learn from these problems and navigate through them much easier than the alternative. If we choose to be bitter about having problems in our life, then navigating through them becomes more of a struggle.

Life is about living and living is full of learning opportunities. I have always used the phrase “stepping stones” to describe how I see life and the opportunities it offers. Every person, every book, every situation is full of opportunity to use all our senses to experience life. It’s a moment by moment decision how we choose to experience life.

It’s about choosing to be happy or unhappy, full of life or full of death, eager to grow or anxious to die; it’s about your cup being half full or half empty. And it’s also a choice between good and evil, and ultimately trusting God or not.

As Nick Vujicic so famously has stated “Your attitude determines your altitude”. In essence our negativity fuels more negativity or our positive outlook creates more positive outlook.

The real question is why anyone would want to be negative, living in doubt, in bitterness, without hope. Why would anyone want to waste their life on just surviving and fighting their way through the problems of life when there is such an amazing alternative? Life is just too short to be wasted.

I am also not advocating living a selfish, glutinous life of over indulging in all the amazing and wonderful things life does have to offer. More importantly I am certainly not advocating tossing aside ones moral compass and going off the deep end, choosing to live a life void of common decency, honorable character, and morality.

Some people spend their whole live running. They run from anything they cannot control, they run from anything they don’t like, they run whenever their lies have begun to catch up with them, they run whenever they are feeling bored, and they run when genuine intimacy and true love are reaching out to them.

The point is, it’s a choice how each of us views life and ultimately how we live it. Bitter definitely in not the way to go. Better opens up the door to unlimited possibilities. Better definitely is better!

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us….but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” Romans 5:1-5, 8 (ESV).