There are just two things about my summer that I didn’t like – the seven-hour flight to Anchorage and the half-hour flight to Kenai.

Most flights from Anchorage to Kenai seat less than twenty people. Our plane held ten people, including the pilot. And before we got on, we had to tell them how much we weighed! If you’ve never been on a little plane before, let me inform you of the difference between that and a 747 aircraft. The flight on a 747 is relatively smooth, with bathrooms, air vents, personal lights, jet engines, and several pilots. Smaller planes do not have bathrooms. Neither do they have lights, or even barf bags. They have sharp, fast propellers. We had only one pilot, and my 12-year-old brother was sitting in the co-pilot seat!

When I flew in that tiny plane, the sun was completely hidden by fog. It was very foggy. We were up in the sky for about twenty-five minutes, and about half that time all I could see out my window was whiteness. Not that I looked out often. I spent most my time with my eyes squeezed shut and my hands clutching the seat, reciting in my head every single Bible verse I could think of. When I could work up the courage, I would crack my eyes open a little to look out the window. If it was still white, my eyes would shut quicker than a bug splat. It probably would have been better if I could have sat by my Dad, but since the seats were in two rows of five, and my family was all in my row, I couldn’t see any of them. Not that I could have communicated with them, because the engine was so loud. After about two hours (or twenty minutes), I heard someone talking. I opened my eyes to find that I could see the ground, and the pilot was telling us something. Since the engine was so loud and he didn’t have a loud speaker, I couldn’t hear him, but I assumed correctly that he was telling us we were landing. I’m sure no one has ever been so relieved. Later I told my mom that hell was not dark and blazing…I’m sure it’s white and thrums like a prop engine!

When I was up in the air, scared to death, I found myself only being able to remember the verses I had learned when I was little, like Genesis 1:1 and John 3:16. Right now I can remember more than that, but I’m not in any danger (or imagined danger). My purpose for memorizing verses is so I have them in times of need, like when I’m scared or being tempted. So this paragraph is more of an application than a lesson. I need to memorize more Scripture, and memorize it well.

Deep calls to deep in the roar of Your waterfalls ….Psalm 42:7

A friend recently thanked me for sharing Psalm 42 with him during a particularly difficult time in his life. He told me that, although he wasn’t sure of the exact theological meaning of the psalm’s seventh verse, he had come to believe that no matter how deep his personal abyss of pain or need that God’s presence could and would entirely fill it. That sounded pretty profound, and it got me thinking about how shallow my grasp of God really is. How many areas of my life have I closed off to His influence and to a deeper filling of His Holy Spirit? How much, or how little, room have I made for God in my life?

In Jeremiah 23:24, the Lord declares, “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” and in Ephesians 1:23, Paul writes about “the fullness of the One who fills all things in every way.” It is the picture of total satisfaction. No matter the size, shape, or depth of the container, God fills it in every way. Feeling lonely? Our God will never leave us nor forsake us. Afraid? God’s perfect love cast out all fear. Weak? When we are weak, then God is strong. No matter the size of the hole in your heart or the need you are experiencing, God is more than able to fill it and overflow it. The deeper the need, the deeper the response from God.

One of the great benefits of experiencing trials and tests is that they provide an ever deepening well from which to draw the assurance of both my need for and the rescuing power of my Lord. Now when challenges surface, I can draw from the past and know with full assurance that God is in “all things in every way.” He truly is in control, and His grace is sufficient to meet every need. My desire echoes that of Paul’s message to the church in Ephesus. May we mature spiritually as we age physically “until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into a mature man with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness” (Eph. 4:13). Imagine the depth of that!

With today’s price of gas, “Fill ‘er up” is a seldom-used phrase from the past. But may it not be so in our walk with the Lord. May we continue to make room for more of Him and to open our lives completely to the One who fills all things—even the deepest longings of our hearts.

O fill me up, Lord, and overflow my boundaries with Your hope in the power of Your Holy Spirit. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

A lot of people think that seminary graduates are all knowing in theology, Scripture, and have some sort of inside connection with the Almighty. I’ve had so many people say, “You must know everything there is to know about the Bible and God!”

That’s just funny to me because it’s so far from the truth. I don’t fit into their perceived stereotype at all—it doesn’t exist. As a matter of fact, there are so MANY things I don’t know about the Bible. I learn new things every day. There are still passages that stump me and religious questions that I don’t know how to answer.

Just the other day, I came across this passage in Mark (11:20-24, HCSB):

The next day when they came out from Bethany, He was hungry. After seeing in the distance a fig tree with leaves, He went to find out if there was anything on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And His disciples heard it.

Early in the morning, as they were passing by, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up. Then Peter remembered and said to Him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that You cursed is withered.”

Jesus replied to them, “Have faith in God. I assure you: If anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore, I tell you, all the things you pray and ask for—believe that you have received them, and you will have them…”

After reading it, I was so confused. I immediately thought, “Why was this passage even included in this Gospel? What is its significance? Is this included to show the power of faith and prayer? Or is it something more?”

I didn’t understand the correlation between this illustration and message on faith. I had to do a little research, but I found out that when Jesus cursed the fig tree, He was acting out a spiritual lesson.

Jesus threatened to pass the same judgment on Israel that he did on the fig tree because of their disbelief in His Lordship. Israel had all the leaves of piety. They went through all the motions of religion, but they were actually dead and fruitless on the inside.

Jesus is just as frustrated and disappointed with us as he was in the Israelites and the fig tree when we also act this way. Just as it was with Israel, the main ingredient missing in most of our spiritual lives is that of belief (aka faith) and prayer.

Hebrews 11:6 (HCSB) says, “Now without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who draws near to Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him.”

We can find all the “seasons,” or reasons, in the world not to believe, but it all comes down to having faith (belief in His supernatural power) and a prayer life (personal conversations and relationship with God). Do you have these things?