Considering To Fly Again

In some ways it was like I was in school. It was not a book I would have chosen to read. But, thankfully, the Women’s Ministry wanted me to preview a book they want to use this summer. They wanted something that had chapters that were not dependent upon one another. People will be on vacation at times, so they wanted each lesson to stand on itself. But the author is not within our theological heritage. She’s a Christian, and we want to honor our theological heritage instead of giving people mixed theological messages. I may address this topic at a later date.

They asked me to read To Fly Again: Surviving the Tailspins of Life by Gracia Burnham (with Dean Merrill). If you haven’t heard of Gracia, you’ve probably just forgotten that you did. She and her husband Martin were missionaries in the Philippines with New Tribes Mission. In 2001, they were kidnapped while enjoying an anniversary at a hotel. An Islamic militant group was rounding up foreigners to hold for ransom. This is called fund raising in certain corners of the world. They were held captive for over a year until there was one last gun battle with the army. This time Gracia was freed, while Martin was killed.

Martin and Gracia under guard

She has a missionary foundation and a speaking ministry. I heard her speak at a fundraiser in 2010. She’s very engaging and has a great message. That comes across in this book. The chapters are short, and have the feel of more of a talk than an essay. That’s okay in my book. She weaves stories from her life that help make the point she presents with Scripture. The overarching theme is dealing with unexpected suffering. Life interrupts our plans, and sometimes in a way that strips us of our identity. We try all kinds of methods and mechanisms to try and control the uncontrollable.

I could really identify with much of what she had said, particularly about identity. They “lost” their identity while being held captive. They were parents, but not parenting. Missionaries, but now captives. During the Great Transition of 2007-2010, I was a pastor but not. I earned my living doing pulpit supply, working in a hardware store and being an EKG tech at the hospital. My whole vocational identity was discombobulated. Down was up and up was down. Or was that sideways. Tough to tell in the tailspin, which is her point.

Due to the topic, the book is fairly “atheological”.  What I mean is that she doesn’t draw on the distinctive beliefs of any particular theological heritage within Christianity. The book is thoroughly Christian. Her view of sovereignty fits under both Calvinism and Arminianism (as far as it is expressed), but clearly not Open Theism. It is not a deep book, but it is an encouraging book. She helps us put our crashed and burned events back within the context of God’s love and care. Tragedy does not mean that God is weak or unloving. It means that He has greater purposes in mind than we do. We see this often in Scripture. I think of Joseph, Moses (the middle years) and particularly Jesus. For some reason we think it all stopped because of Jesus, not that Jesus gives it meaning. Paul and Peter had a more biblical perspective than we do. And Gracia is trying to point us in that direction- oh, so gently.

My one criticism is that she calls union with Christ a metaphor. She’s not a theologian, I get that. She also lives in a time when we have greatly neglected the importance of union with Christ. It is a real thing, not a metaphor. If we are not united to Christ, we have nothing of Christ’s. In light of the overall context, this is not a huge deal. Just one of those things a guy like me notices.

I’ve been going thru some smaller tailspins lately (more like minor setbacks), and I would find encouragement here. It also reminded me that I want to read In the Presence of My Enemies one of these days.