Last week our training center in Trinidad needed an instructor for a class this week in Suriname, South America. One of our instructors out of the Rocky Mountain region offered to go teach the class. In looking at flight arrangements, he looked at flying on a particular South American airline. Our manager in Trinidad responded quickly and strongly recommended not to fly on that airline. Our manager was a commercial airline pilot and still maintains his commercial license. His reason for not booking our instructor on that particular airline was based on safety and maintenance. He said that particular airline’s maintenance program was poor, and he does not consider their planes safe to fly.
How is the maintenance plan in your life, the plane you are flying? Do you have a regularly scheduled maintenance program? Do you have a time each day that you have set aside to renew your mind by spending time in God’s word, reading and meditating and allowing it to transform your life? Do you schedule time for prayer, where you listen to God and also share your heart with Him? What about the key relationships in your life? Do you schedule time to maintain and cultivate those relationships? If you are married, do you schedule time for dates? Do you set aside time to regularly share your hearts and to listen to one another? Karen and I had a wonderful time together yesterday on our date. We shared a meal together at Sadie’s Mexican restaurant, and more importantly, we shared our lives. We shared our joys, our struggles, our desires, and our hearts. These maintenance times are enriching, and I am more in love now than I was forty years ago when I married the bride of my youth.
As we approach a new year, think about your maintenance program for 2018. If you need help finding a good daily Bible reading program, we will be glad to assist you. If you need practical help on what to do in your daily scheduled maintenance program (Quiet Time or Devotional Time), we would be happy to help you. If you need help with a maintenance plan in your key relationships, we would be happy to help you. At the Connection Church of Albuquerque, we connect people to God and to one another. I am looking forward to a new year of flying safely.