Navigating By Sight

We live by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7)

So what was it like to be Jim Schaeffer and Troy Martin on Wednesday afternoon of this week? There they are, comfortably seated in their Cessna 152 aircraft, making their way from Pennsylvania to an air show in North Carolina, no doubt reveling in the blue skies that canopied the eastern seaboard that day.

That revelry must have been deep. So deep, in fact, that they flew into restricted airspace over Washington, D.C. So deep, in fact, that they didn’t respond to radio contact warning them away from the area. The flare rockets being fired in their direction must have been a rude awakening. Down below, the city of Washington D.C. was slipping into 9/11 dejavu. Laura Bush and her guest, Nancy Reagan, were wisked to a special bunker. Senators and Congressmen went scrambling out of chambers. Tourists were running . . . I have no idea to where. Yes, the security measures were implemented successfully, but you can tell from the TV news clips that the freak-out factor was measurable.

And high above it all sit the baffled aviators.

After the “little plane that could” had been forced to land and investigations had been launched, Kevin Madden of the U.S. Justice Department offered a simple explanation for what had gone wrong: “They were navigating by sight and got lost.”

I don’t know the first thing about aviation, but that explanation doesn’t surprise me at all. The entire story calls to mind the words of the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:7. “We live by faith, not by sight.” In scripture, navigating by sight is simply not reliable.

What is truly remarkable about Paul is that for him, the unseen world was the real world. He didn’t place too much stock in what he could see or in the way things appeared. He didn’t dismiss the seen, but everything he saw was defined and understood in light of another reality – an unseen world. Earlier in the same letter Paul gives us more insight into this and how it actually impacted his life. In 2 Corinthians 4 we read that for Paul an outward (physical) wasting away is matched by daily inner renewal. The troubles of the moment are achieving an eternal glory. For him, the seen world is temporary, fleeting, passing away. The unseen is the real deal – and that’s what determined how he lived. “We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.”

I’d like to learn how to live that way. Honestly, I’m more inclined to navigate by sight. Maybe you are too. The problem is, that way of living inevitably leads to an unintended destination. The destination has various names: despair, hopelessness, resigned cynicism. The seen world can’t be ignored or denied – but it can’t be fully trusted either. Paul didn’t live in denial. That man was firmly grounded. But he didn’t get his answers from the seen world alone. He fixed his eyes on what he couldn’t see. But what does this mean?

I’m not entirely sure, but I believe Paul’s understanding of the presence and work of the Holy Spirit is a large part of the answer. To have the Spirit is to have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:10-16). Having God’s spirit is different from having the spirit of the world.

If you’re navigating by sight, eventually you’ll see something that leads you to some faulty conclusions. But with the mind of Christ at work in you by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may see something far more real than meets the eye. So, with Pentecost Sunday approaching, pray for the Spirit’s work in your life. Seek the Spirit and the mind of Christ. Fix your eyes on what isn’t seen. There’s an alternative to navigating by sight.