From 1969 to 1989, I was a Navy pilot and twice during that span of time, I had the privilege of being a jet instructor for fledgling student pilots. So, I am going to give you a mini-lesson in the simple aerodynamics of something I taught to all of my students. This lesson is going to be about how a plane gets into a spin and how to get it out of one. If you have ever been to an airshow, then at some point during the show, an aerobatic pilot thrilled and scared the crowd by putting the plane into a spin and then pulling it out at seemingly the last minute. It looks simple and it is up to a point. So sit back and learn a bit about this basic set of maneuvers. Once I get that done, then see how I turn that lesson into how it applies to our life with God.
The first concept is the stall. Now, if you drive a car, you have probably had a car stall on you. For some reason, the engine quits. Unless there is a mechanical problem, you can restart it by just turning the key and continue your journey. When a plane stalls, that means the wings are not generating lift and that plane is now a streamlined rock and is no longer flying. The recovery is easy: just lower the nose and add power and pull back up to level flight. All spins start with a stall.
When a plane first starts to spin, it enters the post-stall gyration phase. It sort of just flops around, the nose pitches up and down and the turns are erratic, almost as if it really doesn’t want to do this. After a couple of turns, it enters into the incipient spin phase. There is still some pitching and the turns are not very smooth, but it is headed to the final phase. That phase is the steady state phase. The nose attitude is fixed and the turns are constant. The other part is the plane is falling out of the sky at a high rate of descent! Now for the best part: recovery and return to normal flight. That last happens when the pilot applies the correct controls and the plane responds as predicted.
Okay, now you are wondering how the previous three paragraphs about a spinning airplane are going to apply to your relationship with God. Well, here it goes.
What I am really going to talk about is sin. That’s right, the province of God’s enemy, and ours, Satan. Have you ever taken a look at your life when you are a long way down the wrong track and wondered how you got there? Maybe this doesn’t apply to you. If not, then good. Keep reading anyway, because it may apply to you someday or to someone you know.
Just like a car stalls and an airplane stalls, so do we sometimes. Let’s say you are walking through life and something catches your attention. It is something that you should avoid, but what is the harm in a quick glance? Just a short pause and then, when you realize what you see, you add power, recover and keep going. What if you linger just a bit too long with whatever it is. Just like a stalled plane, you can start flopping around with your decision: should you or shouldn’t you? Around and around you go, just flip-flopping back and forth. You can recover at this stage and return to normal flight, but what if you stick around just a little longer.
Sticking around a bit longer can get you from the post-stall phase to the incipient phase. You are really getting into the edges of the sin, temptation has a good hold and you are nibbling at it, but there is still a little bit of indecision there, still a little bit of pitch to your progress into sinning. You aren’t quite all the way into it but you are almost there, fully committed. Here it comes! The steady state spin of your sin. Around and around you go. It is just a nice steady ride, a smooth trip while you watch the world you knew zip past. The problem is the ride is also straight down. You are the streamlined rock and you are taking that definite negative plunge. Aviators have a saying about pilots who don’t recover from the spin. We talk about them creating a smoking hole in the ground. The same can go for you, only the hole you can get into is full of fire and no smoke. It doesn’t flare and go out; it burns with a constant flame, and a hot one at that. Too bad, isn’t it? Had you applied any of the known recovery techniques, you wouldn’t be there.
Recovery? Oh, yeah, I didn’t talk about that part of the deal when I was still talking about planes. The way you stop a spin, whether you entered it on purpose or inadvertently, is to see which direction you are spinning and then apply full opposite rudder. Spinning to the right? Apply full left rudder until the spin stops and then raise the nose back to the horizon and apply power so you can return to level flight.
Recovering from your sinful spin is the same thing. In simple terms, just start doing the opposite to what you have been doing. When you see that you are out of that life situation, return to the straight and level and apply all of God’s power to keep going straight ahead.
Any airplane can spin and it can be done intentionally or unintentionally. It is up to the pilot to make sure it doesn’t happen and, if so, to recover before any damage is done. There is one exception to that: there is one airplane that, because of the design of the controls, it won’t spin. There is one person who didn’t sin, our Lord, Jesus Christ. Any of the rest of us can do so, and can do so many times. It is up to us to recognize that situation, that temptation, regardless of how pretty or appealing and then recover back to the level path. Jesus came and showed us that path and provided us with the means, strength, and help to stay there. Maintaining straight and level flight will get you from your takeoff point to your destination. You have an excellent instructor and the flight manual is full of the details you need for all normal operations and instructions on how to handle emergencies. It is up to you to listen and study. It is that destination that makes all of the effort worthwhile.
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