Jesus Take the Wheel

“Worry weighs a person down.” – Proverbs 12:25 NLT

In his book, Parables (Creation House, 1991), Jamie Buckingham tells about a pilot in Ecuador who was involved in a plane crash because of a passenger's fear. The wheels of the heavily loaded Cessna 206 had barely left the wet jungle airstrip when the passenger, sitting in the co-pilot's seat, panicked. The pilot had the throttle pushed all the way forward to the firewall. He had done this many times before and was confident they would clear the huge trees towering at the end of the little airstrip.

The passenger, an American who had been visiting the Indians, had never taken off from a jungle airstrip. Looking up, all he could see were the on-rushing trees filling the windshield. “Why doesn't the pilot pull back on the controls?” he thought in terror. Fearful they were going to crash, he tried to help. He grabbed the wheel and pulled back. That was the worst thing he could have done. A plane needs to build up airspeed before you point the nose skyward. Otherwise, the plane will stall.

The plane did stall. It pitched up, lost critical airspeed and began to settle toward the jungle below. The pilot wrenched the controls back and tried desperately to get the nose down. But it was too late. As the airplane reached stalling speed, the heavy engine pulled the nose over sharply, and the craft spun to earth. By God's grace, no one was killed, but all were injured because of a passenger's lack of trust in his pilot.

How often are we like that frightened passenger? We panic and worry, grabbing the controls from God, denying him access to our lives, because we fear risk and failure. We would rather trust our own ability than that of the Master. Give the controls back to God. Turn your life over to God and trust His promises!