the sun is still shining

i am going to owe Mark Batterson a review of his latest book "Primal" here pretty soon, so i thought i should actually get a few entries in before it arrives.

we went back to Phoenix for our first Thanksgiving since moving to Chicago, and i realized i really enjoy flying. some people have a lot of stress and anxiety when it comes to getting on an airplane and cruising halfway across the country at 500+ mph while 30,000 feet above sea level. i actually find it kind of relaxing. even in the crush of holiday travel, if found the whole experience to be pretty peaceful. maybe it would be different if i had to travel a lot for work, experienced some traumatic brush with death on a flight, or was going to visit people i didn't care for. as it was, none of these were the case.

flight reminds me that the sun is still shining. from the ground, things can look pretty dark and dreary sometimes. but no matter how dark the day, if you jump on an airplane and climb to 30,000 feet, at some point, you'll break through the clouds and see that the sun is still shining. maybe you couldn't see it from where you were at before, and maybe you couldn't feel it at the time, but the sun was still shining. in the dreariest days, and on the coldest nights, the sun was still shining. in the deepest of darkness, when the earth had completely turned its back and dawn seemed half a world away, the sun was still shining.

and it still is...

i don't have any profound, spiritual insight at to why, but for some reason, i find great comfort and peace in knowing that the sun is still shining.