This morning I was thinking about my recent flight to San Francisco and safe return home. It's a well worn path for the pilots and crew, but for me, it was a new adventure. Like everyone else on the plane, I trusted the pilot knew where he was going and had the skills and experience to land the plane safely. In light of recent news events, I know this is not always the case. I'm sure the pilot of that German flight, completely trusted the co-pilot. How was he to know the plane would crash and burn when he left the controls to attend to personal business? I suppose the "crash and burn" possibility is always in the back of our heads somewhere. It was in mine as I descended through turbulence and was relieved when we safely touched ground. I was back home and curious to see how things had fared in my absence-with home, work, and church responsibilities. It was nice to know that everything didn't crash and burn just because I took a momentary leave of absence to celebrate my sister's birthday and see the sights of beautiful San Francisco. It could have...easily.
I think things rarely go as planned, but it's nice to have a plan B in place anyway. About a month ago after purchasing my airline ticket, I realized I
would be gone during our choir Easter performance. I guess the
responsible choir director thing to do would have been to push the trip to a different
date, but I knew my sister wouldn't be pleased and I feared her disapproval more than my bishop and entire ward choir. The choir already thinks I'm crazy anyway. So, I tried to come up with a working plan and brainstorm solutions. Then I experimented with some musical ideas with the choir and tried them out during a choir practice. Finally, I stood in front of them, made a decision, and told them about the plan. I designated directors for 2 of the songs and would have the most difficult song sung as if we were singing a musical number by the podium with no leader. I would have a quartet of singers who were already familiar with the piece do the first half of the song and have the choir join in on the second half. I thought it would be great if they could flank the quartet by standing up close with them instead of singing from choir seats. I challenged the choir to listen to the piano and each other, since they would be "winging it" on their own. Heck-no one looks at the choir director anyway.
This whole abandon the choir move was like me saying, "Hey, I need to go to the bathroom-will you please take the wheel for a minute and get this plane where it needs to go." I trusted the leaders/singers and had confidence that they would not crash and burn during our Easter performance. In the successive practices, my plan B option seemed like it should have been plan A all along. It just felt right. I loved having others step up to the plate, demonstrate leadership, and experience success. However, I still felt a little uneasy and sheepishly irresponsible while taking my little ladies trip. On that Sunday, I looked at the towering coastal redwoods in Muir Woods and I couldn't help but wonder how the choir did.
A couple days later I received an email from my sweet visiting teaching companion commenting on how lovely the choir sounded. She noted how the piece where the choir sang with the quartet,"This is the Christ," was especially "spirit filled." That is the whole point of having the choir sing anyway-to increase
the spiritual nature of our meetings. The Holy Ghost testifies of the
truths we sing about, primarily, "This is the Christ!" The plane had successfully reached its' destination! It had safely landed. My trust was well placed. My co-pilots executed the plan. I'm so grateful for THE plan, Heavenly Father's Plan for our Happiness. He trust us to take the wheel-to make independent choices to follow that plan. Our guidance system has been hard-wired in us-like sophisticated air flight controls but we still are in the pilots seat. Our journey home isn't on autopilot-we still have to take the wheel, be trustworthy, and follow His flight control plan.
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