On Sunday evening I boarded an American Airlines flight to Qatar. I was traveling to Sri Lanka for a training conference. It was an uneventful thirteen-hour flight. Fortunately.
On these flights I enjoy watching the flight path via the on-board flight tracker. We crossed the Atlantic, went over Spain and flew over the Mediterranean Ocean. Thinking we would maintain a straight course, I was surprised when we turned right at Egypt and went south, following the Red Sea route. Three quarters of the way down we made a sharp left and flew over the Sinai Desert. We came up to Qatar from a due south course and landed without ever being over the Gulf of Iran or crossing Iranian airspace. A longer but safer flight considering today’s Middle East.
I wrote last week about how the Middle East has been rearranged by the recent wars, especially America’s bombing of Iran. There is an uneasy moment. Iran’s strategy of war through proxies has been checkmated. Israel still can strike at will through the region, as it recently did in Syria. Gaza still smolders in a true crisis that won’t end. A path to “peace” is sought but is elusive. America is still the deciding factor.
My trip to Sri Lanka was planned long before recent events. I was not sure the trip would happen when the bombing of the Iranian nuclear facilities occurred. But events settle, if only for a moment. The world continues to turn.
Our purpose in Sri Lanka is a training conference where we have brought together fellow disciples from South Asia to discuss our efforts to take the true gospel of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God to their areas. Amazing tools of technology are available to us. We have willing hearts of committed members who wish to see this done. We pray God’s blessing on what we do here over the next few days.
Sometimes the path is not always straight. But if God is guiding our efforts, we can expect the result will be according to His will. My flight here required a few turns off the most direct and logical path. That is how God sometimes works. We walk by faith and not by sight.
Keep looking up.