As I write this I am on a plane flying home from being out of town.

While sitting here looking out the window, I started to remember how I used to be such a white-knuckled flier. Any change in a noise, little bump, turn, or anything else unexpected used to make my heart jump into my throat.  My heart would start to pound, I would start to sweat, and I would hold onto the arm rests so tightly you would have thought that I would have broken them off.

I would be so worked up about flying that sometimes I wouldn’t calm down until the day after the flight.   Now that I look back, this is a funny story, but one night after flying I was at my father’s house in Florida.  The central air conditioning unit was outside the window of the bedroom I was sleeping in.  On the night that I had arrived I was sleeping as the air conditioning unit ran.  In the middle of the night the unit turned off and I jumped out of bed in a sweat thinking I was still on the plane and the engines had just quit. 

I don’t know when I started to get like this because I used to fly as a child and really liked it.

I became so afraid of flying that I would try to find any reason not to.  I would drive for hours to get somewhere so I didn’t have to fly.  But eventually I couldn’t avoid flying anymore – business demanded it.

One day I had to fly to Chicago.  The trip there was torture.  I got there but then I still had to get back home.  The whole time I was there all I worried about was the flight back home.

However, on the flight home something happened that changed my life.

While we were flying back to Hartford, I put on my walkman (that’s what they were called back then).  I started listening to some really nice smooth jazz.  While I was listening, we began to fly through some big, puffy clouds that looked like huge cotton balls.  As we flew, the sun was starting to set and the clouds turned the most beautiful colors I had ever seen: pinks, blues, oranges yellows, and purples – all of different shades.

I had never seen anything so beautiful in all my life.

At that moment, between the beautiful music and the colors of the clouds, I felt like I was in heaven.  As a matter of fact, I knew God was sitting right there with me looking out at this unbelievable sight.  And, at that moment he took away all of my anxiety about flying.

Since that day, I have flown more times that I can count.  I know God healed me that day because I have never been anxious flying since.  Now, I just get on a plane and go.

I am astounded at how God knew just what I needed and how He brought it to me.  The change was so immediate and dramatic that there is no explanation in my mind other than God’s intervention.

I went through some very difficult times before then.  I have often wondered why did God have me go through such horrible anxiety before He helped me?  Why would He let me suffer so much?

As I look back on it, I believe that if God did not allow me suffering, I would never have known the greatness of His tenderness when He took the anxiety away.

It is the experience of struggling and seeing the low points in our lives that makes us truly appreciate when he brings us to the high points.

So as we got through the low points in out lives and face what may seem to be insurmountable difficulties, always remember that God IS with us and WILL bring us out of the darkness.  It is our job not to give into the darkness or lose faith while we wait for Him to find the right time to act.

Share with us: Has there ever been a moment when God changed your life?

Thanks for being part of The Whisper of God community. – Elmer Laydon