Trust Your Instruments
Hugh Godefroy was one of my great heroes: a Spitfire pilot during World War II. In 1940 he was an engineering student at Toronto University. He left school to volunteer for the Royal Canadian Air Force and to join the air battle in defense of England. Early in his training he encountered the difficulty of flying in clouds with no horizon or other outside reference points.
One day I spent doing nothing but cloud flying. We had to master the technique of fighting the vertigo which plagues pilots flying on instruments.
In the early days often I found myself sweating. I felt as though I were spinning in a spiral dive. One had to say to himself, ‘The instruments are right, and I am wrong.’ Finally I would break cloud, and find to my great relief that I was flying straight and level. We never worried in England at that time over what else might be flying in the same cloud. We never gave it a thought.32 In the early days of aviation, pilots had to fly “by the seat their pants.” There were no instruments to guide them. Now there are myriad devices that enable flight in darkness or clouds without visual references. Like most pilots I have experienced the overwhelming sensation while flying on instruments that the aircraft was doing something totally different from what the instruments were telling me. It became a struggle between my feelings and my knowledge of what was correct.
In our daily lives, our “instruments” are God’s words as revealed in the Bible. Sometimes biblical instructions are also counterintuitive. Jesus’ entire Sermon on the Mount is a departure from what then was considered ‘conventional’ wisdom. Even when our hearts attempt to steer us in the wrong direction, we must instead move in the direction God provides in his Word.
You have heard that it was said, “Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.
—Matthew 5:43
British Spitfire fighter. (Imperial War Museum, E(MOS) 1348)
Children in London after bombing. (National Archives)