Fear of Flying

I told you a month or so ago about the trip Wanda and I took to Seattle.  There’s one thing I didn’t tell you about it.  We flew to Seattle on that trip.  You might have guessed that, of course, but here’s why I mention it:  I really don’t like to fly.  I’m a nervous flyer.  I don’t go into abject panic about it, but I don’t like it very much.  Let me put it this way:  if I never had to fly again it would, as the saying goes, be all right with me.

I do have to fly once in a while, though, and the chances are I’ll have to do it again sometime.  The thing about it is that, the last couple of times I have flown, I had no problems at all.  There was a bit of trouble with our baggage, but the actual flights couldn’t have been better.  Basically, my fears have been for nothing.

But that’s the thing about fear:  it doesn’t have to have logical reasons.  When someone is afraid of something, you can give them all kinds of logical reasons why their fears are groundless and it won’t change anything.  I can acknowledge all the statistics that exist that show how safe flying is, but it doesn’t make me feel any better about flying.  I’m still nervous about it.

We all have fears.  Maybe you’re not afraid of flying, but I know you’re afraid of something.  Everyone is.  Even people who won’t admit to fears have them.  So how do we handle it?  If logic can’t help us with our fears, what do we do?  Well, there are two things, and they really come down to what Jesus said were the two greatest commandments:  loving God and loving each other. 

What do I mean by that?  Well, one of the biggest things that helps me when I have to fly is having Wanda with me.  She is not afraid of flying at all.  So she talks to me, she comforts me, she distracts me, she does whatever she needs to do to keep me calm.  So that’s the second part of it--loving each other.  When we love each other, we can help each other through our fears.

And the other thing that helps me when I fly is prayer.  I pray before the flight and sometimes during the flight.  And it’s not really a panic-stricken prayer, although God hears those, too.  It’s just a prayer that God will take care of me and help me have a safe flight.  It’s a prayer that puts the problem into God’s hands and trusts God to take care of it.  So that’s the first part of it--trusting God.  When we put things into God’s hands, we can stop being scared of them, because God’s hands are the best hands there are.

It’s not a magic formula.  I’d still prefer it if I never had to fly again.  But if I do, I know I’ll be able to handle it, because I have both God and Wanda to help me.  I have the love of God and the love of another.  And that’s a pretty good combination.