Last week when two airline pilots missed the airport at which they were supposed to land by 150 miles, industry experts and the public wondered what in the world could they have been doing instead of flying the plane with its 144 passengers. They had been totally unreachable by air traffic control for an hour and twenty minutes. Fighter jets were readied for an intercept in case the plane had been hijacked and a 9/11 scenario was in the making.
It wasn’t until a flight attendant called them to ask when the plane was going to land that the pilots realized that they had been disconnected from their primary responsibility. What an ‘oops’ feeling that must have been.
They were fortunate.
Usually, if a pilot has to say, “My bad,” lives are lost, including theirs. (Years ago some distracted pilots let the plane run out of gas, and it crashed killing most on board.) The only explanation had to be that they had fallen asleep, although they said that they had been in a heated conversation about airline policy. Now they are telling authorities that they were on their personal laptops checking out a new complicated crew schedule.
Whatever, it is unthinkable that two people with such responsibility could totally disconnect from what they were doing. Or, is it? Most of us aren’t literally responsible for the lives of others as we do our jobs, but we probably do have something important that we are doing, something that really matters. Hopefully, it did when we took the job. But, routine and auto-pilot can make us disconnect from the glory of our work.
We lose the vision and passion for the best result that can happen in our work. Pastors are capable of such disconnects. There is a big difference between preparing a sermon and declaring the glory of God. Sermon prep is a deadline, declaring the glory of God is a calling.
Check out your vision and passion at your own job today.
What’s the best that can happen in this world because you have this job?
To what degree are you connected to the glory of your job?
Comment on what might be the glory of your job.
More tomorrow on the glory of our work.