God’s plan is simple, like steps to boarding an airplane

Religion Columnist

I recently took two trips involving several flights using multiple airlines, one of which was going through a merger. Generally, there’s a consistency among airlines in loading passengers from the back to the front and that’s always made sense to me. Still, aisle-seated passengers who load first often have to step out for window passengers to access their seat. The merging airline actually used a different loading order on one of its flights, which might have been a relic of different traditions between their regional affiliates. On most of the flights using that merged airline, planes were loaded from back to front, but my last flight back to Albuquerque loaded from front to back.

What a mess! The passenger seated next to me commented that they probably did that to keep passengers in the back of the plane from taking up overhead bin space toward the front, which caused the forward-seated passengers to have to wait to unload until they could go backward to get their bags.

I mentioned that when I left Obregon, Mexico, on my earlier trip they actually loaded the window seats first and then the aisle seats. We agreed that was probably better, but airlines also should still load from the back to front and require passengers to use the bins over their seat whenever possible. They could have lanes for seating position from the windows inward and have people line up by row from high to low. First class and other priority pre-boarding would have minimal impact on loading the main cabin. Even some aisle-seated Obregon passengers tried to by-pass the system by getting into the window seat lane only having to move back out for window passengers.

So, how does this airplane loading example apply to our Christian life?

God’s simple plan is simply spelled out in his word. Still some people just don’t get it and either omit requirements or make it more complicated than it’s intended to be. God’s wisdom seems too simple to the wise of the world so they impose their own wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:18-25; 2:14). But, whenever anyone tries to sidestep God’s plan, it causes them more problems than they anticipated (1 Corinthians 4:6-7; 3:18-26; Luke 6:46-49; Matthew 7:21-27; 15:3, 7-9, 14).

Some even try to satisfy everyone and compromise by devising a combination of systems that accepts all but that also creates chaos (Matthew 6:24; Acts 17:22-23; John 4:22-24; Romans 10:1-3). To them, it’s a matter of this or that when actually it’s a matter of this and that based on the whole counsel of God, as indicated by all the conversion examples in the book of Acts and the reminders to Christians in the Apostles’ letters about how they were saved (Acts 20:26-27; 2:38-39; Mark 16:16; Romans 6:3-7; Galatians 3:26-4:7; 1 Peter 1:22-25; 3:21, for but a few examples).

Are you studying God’s word for yourself to get the whole counsel and to assure that you’re being correctly taught (Acts 17:11; 2 Timothy 2:15; 2 Peter 1:3-11)?

Leonard Lauriault is a member of the Church of Christ in Logan. Contact him at [email protected]