The Navigator
“Peace I leave with you.”
Yesterday I phoned a very special and dear old friend of mine way back from the very beginning of our ministry here at Shalom. We had a wonderful conversation on the phone and just before we said goodbye, he told me that his late dad’s sister, his aunt, had also just died. Her daughter was having a discussion with my friend and told him something about his father that he had never known.
During the Second World War, he was a navigator in the airforce, an extremely dangerous job, where they flew over enemy territory in squadrons. These huge bombers had navigators in their planes, this was the man who was directing their journey, so to speak. She told my friend that his father, every time he came on to the radio and started to speak, there was a tremendous peace and a calm that came with it. It settled all the other planes and pilots as this navigator gave them instructions. Just the peaceful voice of reassurance seemed to settle all those very anxious aircrews.
I am brought to the scriptures in Matthew 5:9 (NKJV), which simply states, “Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God.”
I believe in this turbulent time which we are living in, we need to be God’s navigators; not so much directing operations but giving-off a sense of peace wherever we go. Whether we speak, whether we drive, communicate on the cell phone, email, or any of the media fronts - we need to give-off a perfume and influence of absolute peace and calmness.
We know, as children of the Lord Jesus Christ, that this difficult situation will pass. Like it has done in the past, it will pass again and then we will carry on. But what an opportunity we have at this very moment to be totally different from the world. Where the world is in absolute turmoil, fear and confusion, we can be like that wonderful man, like my friend’s Dad, where every time he spoke on the radio, flying over those dangerous places during those war situations, peace came upon all the pilots and all their crew of the different planes in the squadron.
Often you will not even be aware that people are watching you. Whether it be in a shop or in a queue situation, with motorcars lined up and people are hooting and frustrated - that is the time to be like the navigator. To be at peace when people are jostling to get to the front of the queue. To be able to stand back, with grace, and let them go forward because they do not know the Peacemaker, Jesus, as we know Him.
So, may God bless you today as you make a difference in your situation, wherever it might take you
Much love in Jesus,
Angus and Jill Buchan.