The date was April 4, 1943 – A United States Army Air Forces B-24 bomber named “The Lady Be Good” with a crew of 9 men was on its very first mission. This was WWII. They were part of the 514th Bomb Squadron base at Soluch, Libya and assigned to bomb Naples Italy 600 miles north across the Mediterranean sea. They never returned. A search found nothing and they were listed as MIA, presumed to have crashed in the Mediterranean Sea.
Fast-forward 16 years. British geologists flying over the desolate, sun-baked Libyan Desert spotted an aircraft on the sand. The "Lady Be Good" had been found; It was located almost 400 miles south of its home base.
The obvious question was how could this plane have been so far passed its base.
What happened?
Well, during the flight the pilot, Lt. Hatton, had reported that his automatic direction finder was not working. It was telling him he was south of the base, but due to their flight time this seemed impossible to the pilot. He ignored his instruments and continued flying south, looking for the lights of a base he would never find.
It was later determined that a high tail wind had caused the plane to make the return trip from Naples faster than the pilot expected. Because the sky was overcast he never saw the base.
Lt. Hatton's instrument "his automatic direction finder" was correct. It was pointing him in the right direction. Had he put his faith in that proven instrument, instead of what seemed right to him, he could have saved his life and the lives of the 8 crewmen with him.
As Christians, we have an instrument that can help us find our way in a world which should now seems strangly odd to us. That instrument was divinely given to the world by our creator. The Bible gives us reliable direction, especially when we find ourselves lost or alone but also in the manner in which we structure our lives. It acts as a guide to keep us from the many dangerous traps this world can set before us. In other words, the wisdom found within the Bible can keep us on the proper path, and/or rescue us if we are already on the wrong path. The issue, as it was with the crew of the Lady Be Good, is are we going to yeild or follow our own path.
We are naturally more likely to rely on what seems right to us than to submit to the path given us by God in His word. As a matter of fact scripture says so;
"There is a way that seems right to a man , But its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25
We often put our lives and the lives of those we love in danger simply because our actions are base on what seems right to us as oppose to yielding to the proven instrument God gave us. Just like Lt. Hatton, we go by our feelings instead of relinquishing our will to the truth. Had he yielded to his instruments that night Lt. Hatton could have saved himself and his 8 member crew.
What dangers lay before us, or those we care for, that could be avoided if we would just yield to the instrument given us by a our righteous God. Nothing proves our belief (faith) in God more than when we yield to His word, especially when everything is screaming for us to do otherwise. At that moment, what we truly believe is revealed.
Yield to the Truth,
Scott Cosper
Read Romans 6 about yielding to the truth.
