Who is the Pilot?

It was a mild summer day in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina when I boarded United Airline flight 7318 to Washington, DC. Like usual, I promptly located my window seat, with no doubts that the pilots would safely take me to my destination.
     Suddenly, as I sat gazing out of the window waiting for take-off, certain questions unfolded in my mind. I wondered, "Who are these pilots that I wholeheartedly entrust with my life?" I wondered about my surety of knowing that they would, or could take me to my destination. I also pondered on "Why it is that I -- or we as individuals, trustingly and unwaveringly allow others to continuously pilot our lives without questions or reservations?"
     We permit others to pilot our lives while we unquestionably find our seat near the window - just watching - watching our lives quickly pass by. We lack faith in ourselves, because too often, we allow others such as bosses, friends, family and even enemies, to navigate our lives. We allow others to pilot our lives because of their negative words. We allow others to pilot our lives because they claim to know what is best for us. We live on autopilot without a clue as to where we are headed, or how we will get there.
     We must declare that we will no longer allow other people to take control of our lives - or of our future. No matter how cloudy things look, no matter how dark our past is, we must remember that God is in control.
     Allow God to be your pilot -- as you co-pilot your own life into a prosperous and promising future.
     Declare today: I will no longer sit back and allow other people to control my life into an uncertain and discontented future. The past is behind me -- and only the best is yet to come!                                                          Copyright 2003 by Audrina Jones Bunton. REPRINTING THIS ARTICLE: Permission is granted to reproduce or distribute this article only in its entirety and provided copyright is acknowledged. You can find other articles to choose from at http://www.purposefully-living.com/mailing%20list.htm

A graduate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with a Bachelor's degree in Sociology, Audrina is a Competent Toastmaster of Toastmasters International and serves as the North Carolina District Sergeant At Arms. She is a former counselor of the Durham Pregnancy Support Services, a Christian-oriented crisis pregnancy center in Durham, North Carolina and is currently a Social Research Assistant at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Audrina is currently studying at the Master's Divinity School in Evansville, Indiana with a combined concentration in Biblical Counseling and IABC certification.

She also serves as the Youth Director at the Come As You Are Evangelistic Center in Aberdeen, North Carolina where her mother, Lydia Jones is the pastor.

Modeling after a song that her mother so often sings, and one that Martin Luther King, Jr. often quoted, her life and speeches are based on the following lyrics, "If I can help somebody as I pass along, If I can cheer somebody with a word or song, If I can show somebody he's traveling wrong, Then my living will not be in vain."

Audrina resides with her husband William, and 2 children, Audrina Lorraine and William Woodrow.