This past Christmas, a family member treated us to flights, and we gladly swapped the Minnesota tundra for the Florida tropics. At my mother-in-law’s home, we visited until 3:30 a.m., laughed ourselves hoarse, and overate cookies, prime rib, and toffee.

We also slept in marshmallow-soft beds.

Sitting with the fam one night, my neck was a knotted mess, so I asked my powerfully-muscled tiler-by-day, drummer-by-night, 21-year-old son to massage my neck. He kindly obliged but held back (since I am an ancient 47), and the muscles still ached.

Praying and stretching, I touched my chin to my chest. When I did, I felt something snap loudly into place and heard God whisper,

“When you bow before me, things fall into place.”

It’s so easy in our info-Googling, Amazon-ordering, drive-through world to plan our lives, pushing and manipulating things to our desires. We love our illusion of control, but bowing and yielding? Those are only doable by grace.

The paradox is in humbling ourselves, Jesus lift us up. Crying out to God puts things into their rightful place, when we make him Lord of our situations.  Worshiping him prevents our worshiping an idealized life.

Posture determines peace.

Our circumstances may not insta-change, but our attitudes can.

Surrendering to his authority as King of Kings and Lord of Lords supernaturally shrinks struggles.

So adjust your posture today, and let’s see “the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up,” Isaiah 6:1.

On the flight home from that same trip, mentally adjusting to the 100-degree temperature drop, my hubby John and I stared out plane windows at the endless clouds. I marveled at the beauty. Then John mentioned, out of nowhere, “It’s always strange to me how slowly we seem to be flying. It feels like we’ll never arrive.”

“Oh, sure,” I answered, “it seems slow because our perspective is off, even this high.”

The Lord spoke, then,

“Even above the clouds your perspective is limited, and you can’t see the pilot’s vantage point.”

I could almost hear him chuckle then, as he let me deduce the analogy: He is MY pilot, with a radically different viewpoint of my life. He sees what I can’t, knows what I don’t, and his ways and thoughts aren’t mine.

Join me in deciding:

When the flight seems too slow, trust His timing.

When the night is dark or stormy, know the Pilot will land safely.

When the situation banks sharply left or right, rest in his reasons.

When fear rises, be secure in his unfailing hands.

He is God, and he is always good.