This felt like a bad idea.

During a recent trip to Hawaii, we took what I called an “Uber plane” from Maui to the Big Island.

The plane was small, and the poor weather made it feel even smaller. Cold rain lashed down. Wind whipped around us. The pilot looked younger than I’d hoped. As we waited for the stubborn passenger door to be pried open, I thought, "This feels like a bad idea".

I couldn’t control the weather, the wind speed, the storm system, or the turbulence waiting ahead. I couldn’t control the pilot’s level of experience or the aircraft's mechanics.

And if I’m honest, I didn’t understand most of it either. I didn’t understand lift dynamics, radar readings, or flight path calculations. I didn’t know what was normal or what wasn’t, or what the pilot saw from the cockpit.

But once I buckled my seatbelt, I had decided to fly.

It was a rough ride—the bumpiest I’ve ever experienced. But somewhere over the churning water, my nerves settled as I pictured God’s hand gently cupping the underbelly of that little plane, steadying it in the storm.

This is what trust looks like.

Life is full of conditions we cannot control and variables we do not understand.

The diagnosis. The anxiety. The disappointment. The open door. The closed one. The storm that rolled in without warning.

We can panic. We can live constantly bracing for impact. Or we can surrender to the One who sees what we cannot and understands what we do not.

Trust is the decision to believe that God is steady — even when everything else around us is turbulent.

So today, whatever storm you didn’t schedule and whatever variables you cannot manage… Buckle in. Not with fear — but with faith.

Reflections

1. What situation keeps me bracing for turbulence?

2. If I truly believed God was steady, how would my perspective change?

“God is too good to be unkind and He is too wise to be mistaken. And when we cannot trace His hand, we must trust His heart.” — Charles Spurgeon

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