Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Proverbs 3:5-6
Have you ever looked back on a decision you were completely certain about and thought, “What was I thinking?”
Most of us have experienced a moment like that. The choice had seemed obvious. We were sure we could see the whole picture. Looking back, we realize there were things we couldn’t have known.
Pilots who fly into the national airport of the country of Bhutan understand that feeling better than most. The runway sits in a valley between two peaks that rise 18,000 feet, hidden behind the ridgeline until the final moments of descent. Pilots cannot see where they are landing until they are almost there, and only about fifty in the world are trained to land there.[1]
What gets them down safely isn’t just skill. They look for guidance. Long before they can see the runway, they follow a fixed sequence of checkpoints, a beacon on one ridge, laid out by people who know the mountain.[2]
That is what God asks of us. Scripture says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take” (Proverbs 3:5-6). It’s not that we stop thinking, but we stop assuming we can chart the descent ourselves. We only see the next checkpoint, but God sees the whole valley.
It’s critical to settle—before you’re under pressure, whose voice you’ll trust when you are. Our instincts can be convincing when we’re tired or afraid. When a difficult decision comes, don’t rely only on what makes sense right now. Bring it to God, ask for His wisdom, and trust that He will guide you to the next checkpoint, even before you can see the whole valley.
[1] Lilit Marcus, “This Airport Landing Is So Challenging Only 50 Pilots Are Qualified to Do It,” CNN, September 18, 2024, https://www.cnn.com/travel/paro-bhutan-airport-landing-intl-hnk.
[2] “Pilots Master Challenging Landing to Paro Airport,” Jet Aviation, https://www.jetaviation.com/perspectives/pilots-master-challenging-landing-to-paro-airport/.
