Dr. Jerome Frank, a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University, was flying across the U. S. several years ago. This was before the modern security measures we have installed today were throughout our nation’s airports.
He sat beside a man on a coast-to-coast flight who said, “You know, I used to be deathly afraid of flying. It all started after that man brought a bomb on board a flight to Denver to kill his mother-in-law. I could never get it out of my mind that someone on one of my flights might be carrying a bomb as well.”
Dr. Frank asked, “Well, how did you deal with that problem?”
The man replied, “Well, I went to one of those special schools for people who are afraid of flying, and they told me there was only one chance in ten thousand that someone would bring a bomb on the flight I’m on. That really didn’t make me feel much better. The odds were still too close. But then I reasoned that if there was only one chance in ten thousand that one bomb would be on the plane, there was only one chance in 100 million that two bombs would be on board. And I could live with those odds.”
Dr. Frank again asked, “But what good would that do you?”
He replied, “Ever since then, I carry one bomb on board myself – just to improve the odds.”
Come on, laugh, that was funny as well as true. For this ‘bomb’ that we carrying is like no other.
You see, we are never alone. For Jesus said, “It is good that I am going away. For unless I go away, the Holy Spirit will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7). Let me say it again, we are never alone. This is what John meant when he said, “Greater is He that is within us…” (1 John 4:4).
Have you ever really stopped to consider this? We have the Holy Spirit, God’s presence and power within us. That which Jesus promised (John 14, 15, 16) would reside within us – to guide, to convict, and teach us all truths. Now, talk about packing a punch. This is why we do not fear, shrink back, and we speak boldly, in love, of the greatness of God – “For when God is for us who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).
I contend it is time for us to walk in obedience to God’s Spirit. I contend it is time for us to stand upon the rock that cannot move. I contend it is time for us to be not be “ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ” (Romans 1:16), for it is in, and only in, this Gospel that people will find everything they are looking for.
Will you be that one and live accordingly?
