On occasion I like to spend my lunch hours over at the Portland International Airport and watch planes land and take off. There is a little parking lot along marine drive right by the runway where I can sit and watch planes come and go. My dad and I used to go out to the airport and watch planes land and take off. I think that was the foundation for my love of airplanes. Every now and then I take my two kids with me and we drink hot chocolate or a coke and watch the planes too.
It's a good place for me to unwind and just think. There are a few lessons I’ve learned sitting there by the runway and I thought I’d post a couple of them here.
As many of you know birds around airports are a particular hazard. I assume seagulls and jet turbine engines don’t get along. PDX, like most airports I assume, has a system for keeping the birds off the grass around the runway. It seems to me as I sit and watch, seagulls are a particular problem, since the north edge of the Airport is about 100 yards from the Columbia river. Seagulls tend to wonder over the fence and land on the grass and access roads around the runway. About every 15 minutes or so a truck drives by on the access road and scares them off. Once in a while the driver will put it in 4 wheel drive and drive out on the grass and scare a flock away as well. The most dramatic way they politely ask birds to leave is by firing a series of air cannons. I don’t know if they are set to timers or if they fire them when the number of birds gets to a certain level. You can hear the first loud BANG at one end of the runway and the cannons will begin to fire in line down the length of the air field. BANG!.....BANG!.....BANG!....
Needless to say it scares the birds and they all take off in a group usually flying over us parked by the runway watching planes. For those of you that live near a river or lake or ocean you know what scared seagulls do when they fly over shiny parked cars.... they crap all over them! Especially scared birds.
Ok here is my lesson I've learned. When something scares me I tend to crap on people (figuratively of course) I think all of us do. When we feel like we are losing control or we are threatened by something we crap on people... We treat them badly. Churches do it a lot. When congregations find themselves in strange situations or facing uncomfortable changes they start to crap on each other. There are few places that I see people treat each other as badly as they do inside the walls of the church. I don’t know why that is. It's like we are scared seagulls!
It reminds me of King David. If you are familiar with David’s story there was a brief time in his reign when he was run out of town by an uprising lead by his son. As he and his little band of followers are leaving town a peasant on the side of the road, named Shimei begins to insult and chastise David. One of his generals says “should we kill him for cursing God’s anointed?” and David says in a sense “no, I deserve to be chastised a bit” and they move on. In my mind even though David is temporarily put off his throne he still knows he is king. Ultimately he regains his throne and rules over the united kingdoms of Israel for a number of years. Finally when he is old and about to die, he calls his son Solomon to his side and offers him some advise on being king, but he adds a bit about who he should trust and who he shouldn’t and says “There is also with you Shimei son of Gera, the Benjaminite from Bahurim, who cursed me with a terrible curse on the day when I went to Mahanaim; but when he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the LORD, ‘I will not put you to death with the sword.’ Therefore do not hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man; you will know what you ought to do to him, and you must bring his gray head down with blood to Sheol.” (1Kgs. 2:8-9) David swore he wouldn’t kill Shimei, so he tells his son to do it! What is different? David is in his chambers surrounded by wealth and all, but I think he is scared. He’s survived wars and battles and uprisings but he knows he is not going to survive much longer so he starts to crap on people, and he orders the death of a man he has held a grudge against for decades.
When we are scared we crap on people. As I contemplate changes in my life and ministry I know that there will be times when I feel like I have no control and I am a seagull flying with cannons blaring behind me. I pray that I wont resort to crapping on people when I’m scared. I pray that for the rest of us who find ourselves as ministers of Gods grace we wont act like scared seagulls either. That we can model a faith for those whom we serve that relies on God’s Spirit, not merely our abilities.
Have a great week friends.... BANG!
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