Chrysostom
Beloved of All
You ask God for a smooth and safe flight, and this is a natural request born of our human frailty. We all tremble in the face of danger, and it is good to cast that care upon the Lord. Yet, consider carefully what it is you chiefly desire to keep safe. Is it merely the body that sits in the airplane seat?
My burden is light, declares the Lord, and His yoke is easy. While the merchant exhausts himself hiring ships and watching markets for fleeting gain, you are asking for the ease of a few hours, a smooth passage through the air. This is a small request, and God often grants such comforts. But do not let this request distract you from the flight of your soul.
The true danger is not turbulence, but arriving home with a conscience still unrepentant, still clinging to a sin for which there is no second remission if you treat grace lightly. To pray only for physical safety while the soul is in peril is to go into battle without arms. Do you seek God as diligently as one searches for lost gold, traveling from home, enquiring of everyone? Seek Him with that same desperation for the cleansing of your sins, that you may be found having His grace safe in that ultimate day of judgment.
That flight, first out of sin and finally to meet the Lord, is the only safe passage that truly matters. Pray then for a safe journey, but accompany it with a greater, trembling plea: that you would not be found fighting against God by a life of careless ease, but would instead have a swift flight to repentance.
My burden is light, declares the Lord, and His yoke is easy. While the merchant exhausts himself hiring ships and watching markets for fleeting gain, you are asking for the ease of a few hours, a smooth passage through the air. This is a small request, and God often grants such comforts. But do not let this request distract you from the flight of your soul.
The true danger is not turbulence, but arriving home with a conscience still unrepentant, still clinging to a sin for which there is no second remission if you treat grace lightly. To pray only for physical safety while the soul is in peril is to go into battle without arms. Do you seek God as diligently as one searches for lost gold, traveling from home, enquiring of everyone? Seek Him with that same desperation for the cleansing of your sins, that you may be found having His grace safe in that ultimate day of judgment.
That flight, first out of sin and finally to meet the Lord, is the only safe passage that truly matters. Pray then for a safe journey, but accompany it with a greater, trembling plea: that you would not be found fighting against God by a life of careless ease, but would instead have a swift flight to repentance.
