Such words might be addressed to a a trainee pilot as he takes off solo. ’Winkle’ Brown might have heard them many years ago before he became the test pilot who flew more types than anybody else in a hair-raising career. Paul said as much to the Christian believers in Philippi. He and they knew each other well. They relied on his judgment, it would seem, in days when the Christian faith was new and often the Philippians, like others, must have felt that they were being left to their own devices.
But there is a caveat. Paul reminds his readers that they look to God as their strength, not human leaders. God inspires the will and the deed, he says. They have to make up their minds about how far to put their confidence in other teachers. Corinthians were going through the same experience. Call to mind Priscilla and Apollos. A tendency to bunch together and rely on gifted leaders to do the thinking has characterised a good many periods of Christian belief. It is a thoroughly understandable inclination but it has to be kept in its place. Apollos discovered that; probably it was a woman Priscilla, who put him right on this.
The issue came up with the missionary movement in the 19th century. Hannington, the first bishop of eastern equatorial Africa was on his own as he chased butterflies and made his way to Uganda to preach the Gospel. The believers were left alone after he was killed before he had even started his job. Nowadays we look back on missionaries as contaminated agents of colonialism and victims of economic power-play.
Paul sought to adjust the balance. A man (or woman) must stand on his or her own feet but that should not result in merely being opinionated. And there must be no handing over of the reins to another person. We have to remember Matthew 7.3 alongside Philippians 2.12.
AVIATORS
In 1927 Charles Lindbergh became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic. He flew from Long Island, New York to Paris.
The first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic was Amelia Earhart. In 1937 she disappeared over the Pacific in an attempt to circumnavigate the globe.
In 1947 Colonel Albert Boyd set a world air speed record of 623 mph.
Captain Joseph Kittinger set a balloon altitude record of 96,000 feet in 1957.
Not on their own but in much demand are the 130 light planes of MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship, a Christian organisation) serving remote communities worldwide. The first MAF flight took place in 1946 in Mexico.
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