4 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. — Matthew 7:24, 25 NIV

In the early days of aviation, long before the technology that produced GPS and other navigational aids, pilots would fly using only visual references. Using nothing but their sense of direction, the location of the sun and familiar landmarks, they were able to go from point to point.  They would often pick out a road and follow along that route.  Pilots kept the aircraft upright, straight and level by watching the horizon and the pressure they would feel on their posterior to determine if they were ascending or descending.  This type of flying became known as “flying by the seat of your pants”.   Because the pilot used only his physical senses, he would, at times, become slightly disoriented.  Needless to say, this type of flying often ended up with the pilot flying or following a path that was not always a straight line.  If the pilot became too disoriented and confused, the result was a crash often ending in the pilot’s death.  The pilots could only fly in clear skies so that all the physical landmarks would be visible to the human eye.  At that time, it was impossible to fly above a cloud layer or through storms. Aviators had to wait until technology was developed to help them navigate and maintain orientation to fly above the clouds and through the stormy weather.
How many of us live our lives “by the seat of our pants” depending only on our feelings and the things that we can see to guide us?  Like the old pilots, we may do all right as long as there is clear weather, no storms, no clear air turbulence and no major wind shifts to blow us off  course.  But what happens when the storms of life come? What happens when our feelings lead us off course? We have Someone that we can trust to carry us safely through the storm.  When our sense of purpose fails us, we have One who will keep us on course and fly us straight to safety.  But, God is not satisfied with being our navigator or our copilot, He wants to be our Pilot and He does not need a navigator.  He doesn’t want to be our Pilot just in the storms, He wants to be our Pilot in the clear skies as well.  With God, the plan is always “all in” or it won’t work.  Build on the Solid Rock and trust Him with every part of your life.