Years ago a small plane crashed into a house just two hundred feet from our church building. There were two men in the plane and both of them died. After a full investigation by the authorities, the story I heard was that the men were doing “touch and goes” from the local airport near our church property. These men were the new owners of this aircraft. On take off the plane began to sputter and loose power; the pilot immediately banked left in an attempt to return to the airport. They were only about one quarter of mile from the airport when they lost sufficient air speed and crashed. It appears that the plane was low on fuel and in this particular aircraft a banking turn to the left would serve to aggravate the problem.
Two things it seems would have served to solve this matter; if they had chosen to bank to right they may have made a safe return; it also seems that a corrective device had been installed in the aircraft and had they known about it and simply hit a toggle switch the problem would have been corrected.
Christ warned His followers about a dangerous and serious error in the book of Luke:
Luke 10:20 (KJV)
Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.
We, as followers of Christ, are so prone to becoming attached to what seems to be our own success or failure in Christian service that we loose sight of the one thing that ought to sustain us through all the trials and rigors of Christian service and that is the abiding and secure reality of our salvation. I fear that in this world we are so attached to the outward effects and accomplishments of our Christian service that we have developed a whole new category of idolatry. It is so easy to become attached to these things and become critical and even bicker over these matters. That is what the children of Israel did very soon after their deliverance from bondage in Egypt.
Let us be careful to keep our eyes on the right things.
