Life on a plane feels like life on pause. As I flew from Florida to California, where was I? I wasn’t in Florida, and I wasn’t in California. I was in the air, I was somewhere, I was nowhere. When I stepped off the plane, Florida seemed long ago and far away. California was my new reality.
Sometimes it feels like my life is on pause as if I have left something behind and am hanging in the air while an unseen pilot flies me to my new destination: the next job, the next relationship, the next responsibility, the next opportunity.
What do you do on an airplane? Take a nap? Watch a movie? Read a book? Play Solitaire? How do you live when life is on pause? In his book, A Shelter in the Time of Storm, Paul David Tripp says, “Remember, waiting isn’t just about what you are hoping for at the end of the wait, but also about what you will become as you wait.” I would like to find that when I step off a plane, I am not only in a new place but also prepared to be in a new place.
Psalm 37 has some wonderful advice for those whose life is on pause.
Trust in the Lord, and do good;
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him, and he will act.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
and your justice as the noonday.
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;
fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
over the man who carries out evil devices! Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!
Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.
For the evildoers shall be cut off,
but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.
(Psalm 37:3-9 ESV)